How Prosperous Is America? Ask UPS Drivers
In few places in the world will delivery drivers earn as much as they will under their new agreement with UPS.
Congratulations are in order.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images North AmericaBy the end of the five-year deal that the United Parcel Service and its drivers just agreed to, full-time drivers will make about $170,000 a year, counting health-care coverage and other benefits. That’s up from $145,000 currently. Quite aside from what those numbers say about the skills of the Teamsters’ negotiators, they are also testament to America’s prosperity and offer some clues to where its economy may be headed.
US living standards are very high. Given a typical ratio of salary to benefits, UPS drivers might be earning a direct-dollar salary of up to $130,000 in the final contract year. To put that in perspective, Connecticut’s wealthy hedge-fund metropolis, the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk area, has a per capita GDP of about $127,000. If those UPS drivers formed their own city, it would be one of the wealthiest in the US.