Being the largest employer of postal jobs in the country, the USPS offers a whole host of benefits and compensation plans, in addition to a great salary package, to their employees. Not only that, the USPS employees are also offered a multitude of training and development opportunities, which allow them to rapidly move up their ranks within the organization. Due to so many perks and benefits, thousands of individuals give postal exam each year for available positions.

Here is an overview of the compensation plans and benefits offered by the USPS:

Life Insurance and Health Benefits

The USPS offers its employees medical health plans that are associated with the Federal Employees Health Benefits program. Under this program, the federal government pays about two-third amount of the premiums, due to which the medical insurance costs become comparatively low for employees and retirees. The employees are also given the Federal Employee’s Group Life Insurance, which offers low cost term life insurance and basic coverage for their immediate family members. They also get five times of their salary in death benefits.

Other insurance and health benefits include:

• Federal Flexible Spending Account Program (FSAFEDS)
• Federal Employees Dental Vision Care (FEDVIP)
• Federal Employees Long Term Care (FELTC)
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Leaves

All USPS employees are awarded with many leaves and holidays. Note that all leaves are on per year basis.

• For the first 3 years, the employees have 13 vacations days. From 3 to 15 years of service, they get 20 vacation days, and above 15 years, they are awarded 26 days.
• Regardless of length of service, employees have 10 paid holidays.
• 13 paid sick leaves are given, which remain the same regardless of the number of service years. However, employees can transfer their unused sick leaves to the next year. Due to this, some people have a few months, and sometimes years, of sick leaves at their retirement.
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Career Development Programs

The USPS offers a wide range of training and development opportunities to its employees that help them in improving their knowledge base and develop leadership skills. The following are 5 major training and development programs that are carefully designed for employees and executives to meet performance criteria of high level jobs:

1. Executive Leadership Program
2. National Center for Employee Development
3. Advanced Leadership Program
4. New Supervisor Program
5. Managerial Leadership Program
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Retirement Benefits

The USPS retirement system offers benefits in three different ways:

1. A fixed contribution with a 5% employer match through 401K THRIFT Savings Plan
2. Social Security
3. A defined annuity based on the employee’s number of service years

This system is more or less similar to the federal civil service. Employees are given 1% average salary of three of their high earning years of service.

These benefits and compensation plans, along with handsome salary package, are the major reasons why so many people take postal exam for different positions every year in the US.