Pay · 43-5053
Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators earn $58,470 a year at the midpoint
Pay is unusually even: nine in ten people earn between $45,530 and $75,280, around a midpoint of $58,470.
National figures for postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators, 43-5053, from the 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
- Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
- What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
- The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
- Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
- Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”
Postal service mail sorter earnings, from starting pay to the top 10%
Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.
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Ranked 423 of 788 by median pay
Better paid than 46% of the occupations in the survey.
- 421 Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers $58,640
- 422 Derrick Operators, Oil and Gas $58,620
- 423 Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators $58,470
- 424 Farm Labor Contractors $58,460
- 425 Massage therapists $58,450
Postal service mail sorter wages by state
The 45 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.37 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.
| State | Median a year | Where most start | 10th to 90th | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | $66,750 | $43,660 | $43,660 — $76,460 | 400 |
| Iowa | $60,530 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $76,360 | 1,040 |
| New Jersey | $60,530 | $47,440 | $47,440 — $76,360 | 3,660 |
| Minnesota | $59,740 | $48,880 | $48,880 — $75,280 | 1,840 |
| California | $59,490 | $47,440 | $47,440 — $75,280 | 10,090 |
| Hawaii | $59,490 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $75,280 | 370 |
| Maine | $59,490 | $47,440 | $47,440 — $75,280 | 440 |
| Michigan | $59,490 | $47,440 | $47,440 — $75,280 | 3,370 |
| Nebraska | $59,490 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,280 | 640 |
| Rhode Island | $59,490 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,280 | 600 |
| Washington | $59,490 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,280 | 1,770 |
| Arkansas | $58,470 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,280 | 570 |
| Colorado | $58,470 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $76,360 | 1,910 |
| Connecticut | $58,470 | $47,440 | $47,440 — $75,280 | 1,020 |
| Delaware | $58,470 | $47,440 | $47,440 — $75,280 | 410 |
| Louisiana | $58,470 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $75,250 | 1,200 |
| Maryland | $58,470 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,280 | 2,430 |
| Massachusetts | $58,470 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,280 | 2,910 |
| Nevada | $58,470 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $75,280 | 920 |
| New Mexico | $58,470 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $75,280 | 350 |
| New York | $58,470 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,280 | 8,290 |
| Ohio | $58,470 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,280 | 3,700 |
| Oklahoma | $58,470 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $75,280 | 790 |
| West Virginia | $58,470 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,280 | 410 |
| Wisconsin | $58,470 | $47,440 | $47,440 — $75,280 | 1,420 |
| South Carolina | $58,390 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $75,280 | 1,280 |
| Illinois | $58,300 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $75,280 | 5,370 |
| New Hampshire | $58,300 | $47,440 | $47,440 — $76,360 | 690 |
| Virginia | $58,300 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,280 | 2,420 |
| Oregon | $57,890 | $47,440 | $47,440 — $75,280 | 1,090 |
| Mississippi | $57,800 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,030 | 350 |
| Alabama | $57,430 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,280 | 1,150 |
| Florida | $57,430 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $75,280 | 7,240 |
| Kentucky | $57,430 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $75,030 | 950 |
| Missouri | $57,430 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $75,280 | 2,730 |
| Montana | $57,430 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,030 | 270 |
| Pennsylvania | $57,430 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,280 | 5,630 |
| Utah | $57,430 | $45,530 | $45,530 — $75,030 | 860 |
| Tennessee | $56,390 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $75,280 | 2,850 |
| Texas | $56,390 | $40,600 | $40,600 — $75,280 | 7,900 |
| Arizona | $55,350 | $42,600 | $42,600 — $75,280 | 2,180 |
| North Carolina | $55,350 | $40,600 | $40,600 — $75,280 | 4,040 |
| Kansas | $54,540 | $39,560 | $39,560 — $75,280 | 870 |
| Georgia | $53,290 | $40,600 | $40,600 — $75,280 | 3,050 |
| Indiana | $48,880 | $39,560 | $39,560 — $75,030 | 2,600 |
Examples
Resumes made for this kind of work.
Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.
- Mail Sorter Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Mail Carrier Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Postal Clerk Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Production Planner Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Meter Reader Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Shipping and Receiving Clerk Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Dispatcher Resume Template Office & Administrative
- 911 Dispatcher Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Courier Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Cargo and Freight Agent Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Weigher and Checker Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Records Clerk Resume Template Office & Administrative
Postal service mail sorter pay rate, hourly and yearly
Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.
Resumes for postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators
Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.
- Cleared jams in sorting equipment.
- Operated various types of equipment, such as computer scanning equipment, addressographs, mimeographs, optical character readers, and bar-code sorters.
- Sorted odd-sized mail by hand, sort mail that other workers have been unable to sort, and segregate items requiring special handling.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Questions people often ask
What is a postal service mail sorter’s yearly income?
A postal service mail sorter makes a median of $58,470 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $48,880 and $75,030.
What is a postal service mail sorter’s hourly pay rate?
The median pay rate is $28.11 an hour; the average is $59,430 a year.
What is the starting pay for a postal service mail sorter?
Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $48,880 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $45,530.
Which state pays postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators the most?
District of Columbia, with a median of $66,750 a year.
How many people work as postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators?
About 105,200 in the United States — number 423 of 788 occupations by median pay.
Work that pays about the same
Median pay within $130 of what postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators earn — $58,470 a year — but not always the same spread.
- $10 less Farm Labor Contractors $58,460median a year 10th percentile: $30,930 90th percentile: $84,050
- $20 less Massage therapists $58,450median a year 10th percentile: $33,640 90th percentile: $100,200
- $130 less Insulation Workers, Mechanical $58,340median a year 10th percentile: $42,470 90th percentile: $100,220