MyPostalPay is an independent USPS employee resource built and maintained by people with first-hand postal experience. We are not a USPS, OPM or union publication. Our job is to translate official material into practical explanations without presenting speculation as policy.
What makes our coverage different
We do not publish a postal press release with a new headline and call it analysis. Every news article is built around the questions an employee would actually ask:
- Does this change base pay, premium pay, retirement or benefits?
- Which crafts, employee categories or installations are affected?
- Is the change approved, proposed, disputed or merely possible?
- What should an employee verify on a PS Form 50, earnings statement or official notice?
- What remains unknown?
First-hand experience helps us recognize where a national announcement and day-to-day postal operations do not line up neatly. It does not make MyPostalPay an official authority, so we link the controlling source and tell readers when local or individual facts may change the answer.
Our source hierarchy
| Priority | Source type | How we use it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | USPS, OPM, IRS, TSP, Federal Register, PRC, GAO, USPS OIG and court documents | Primary facts, effective dates, legal text, financial results and program rules |
| 2 | National union agreements, official wage schedules, MOUs and national union notices | Craft pay, contractual benefits, implementation dates and bargaining status |
| 3 | Reputable original reporting | Breaking developments, interviews and context not yet available in a primary release |
| 4 | Local documents or reader reports | Leads and practical context that must be identified and independently verified before being stated as general policy |
Social-media posts, screenshots and anonymous claims may help identify a story, but they are not enough by themselves to establish a national pay rate, effective date or policy.
Our pay-data rule
Pay rates, grades, steps, waiting periods and effective dates come from official USPS or national-union documents verified during the update. We do not fill a missing number from memory or copy an unofficial pay table because it looks plausible.
If an authoritative document does not provide enough information to support a figure, we leave the figure out and direct the reader to the controlling wage chart, PS Form 50 or earnings statement. This is slower than guessing, but postal professionals should be able to check our work.
News, analysis and developing stories
- Breaking is reserved for a development from approximately the previous 72 hours.
- Developing means a real process remains open, such as litigation, bargaining, PRC review or a scheduled implementation event.
- News describes a recent development whose essential facts are settled.
- Analysis explains possible consequences or connects multiple confirmed facts. Predictions are labeled as predictions.
- Guide and Retirement pages are reference material reviewed when the underlying rules change.
We do not convert a proposal into an approved plan. Headlines should identify what actually happened: filed, proposed, announced, approved, effective, delayed or overturned.
Calculator methodology
MyPostalPay calculators run in the visitor’s browser. Their published assumptions are based on the cited pay schedules, tax rules and program limits. Where a calculation depends on personal history or an agency determination, the result is labeled as an estimate.
The calculators are decision-support tools, not official payroll or retirement systems. A user should compare the result with an earnings statement, PS Form 50, annuity estimate or official agency calculation before making an irreversible decision.
Updates and corrections
When a story materially changes, we update the article’s content and modified date. We do not change a date simply to make old material look new. If an earlier conclusion becomes wrong, the corrected page should say what changed rather than silently preserving a misleading prediction.
Minor spelling or formatting fixes may be made without a correction note. A substantive correction involving a rate, date, eligibility rule or conclusion is identified in the article when it could change a reader’s understanding or decision.
Readers can report an error through the contact page. Pay and benefit corrections receive priority; including the official source helps us verify the issue faster.
Advertising and editorial independence
MyPostalPay may earn revenue from display advertising. Advertisers do not choose our topics, review articles before publication or influence our conclusions. Advertising is kept visually separate from navigation, calculators and editorial content.
We do not sell favorable coverage. If a future page contains a sponsorship, affiliate relationship or paid placement, it will be disclosed clearly on that page.
Privacy and conflicts
Calculator inputs stay in the visitor’s browser and are not sent to MyPostalPay. Public mutual-exchange listings and optional submissions are handled as described in our privacy policy.
MyPostalPay’s contributors may work for USPS, but this site is produced independently and does not speak for the Postal Service. We avoid publishing private operational, employee or customer information and do not expose local details merely to make an article sound more authoritative.