[HN Gopher] UPS drivers in US to get $170k pay package
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UPS drivers in US to get $170k pay package
Author : pmoriarty
Score : 27 points
Date : 2023-08-08 21:46 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Great work by the union on negotiating the latest comp
| arrangement.
|
| https://teamster.org/2023/07/weve-changed-the-game-teamsters...
| RobinL wrote:
| Can anyone explain how wages can possibly be this high? Why
| doesn't everyone on a low income want to become a UPS driver?
| miguelazo wrote:
| Because it's actually hard (both physically and mentally)
| labor. Unlike what most of the keyboard jockeys on this forum
| (including myself) are doing. Not to mention the misleading
| headlines as others have alluded to.
| mbgerring wrote:
| It's skilled labor and it likely takes training and years of
| service to get to this level of pay, which, given that its
| inclusive of the provided health care benefits, is just enough
| to provide what used to be considered a normal middle class
| standard of living. We should aspire for basically every job in
| America to work like this.
| barathr wrote:
| The headline is misleading. It's not actually $170k salary.
| It's a base salary of something like $95k and then various
| (mostly standard) benefits that they mark up the value of to
| claim it as being worth the remainder.
| olyjohn wrote:
| That still seems really high. I don't believe it.
|
| https://www.jobs-ups.com/category/delivery-driver-
| jobs/1187/...
|
| All these delivery driver jobs are $21-28/hr that I could
| see.
|
| I don't know how you can make anywhere near $95,000/yr unless
| you're getting paid mega overtime. If they are using overtime
| stats to prop up their average pay, that's horse shit.
| ecshafer wrote:
| It's usually pretty hard to get an ups driver position. Most
| people work the warehouse for years before they get a shot, and
| that is incredibly hard work that doesn't pay as well.
| aphexddb wrote:
| Context: I was a UPS drivers helper during college during the
| holiday seasons. This job entailed running large amounts of
| holiday volume packages to houses from the truck.
|
| I speculate that this is because the role of driver is a high-
| trust and critical operations role. This person has to reliably
| execute package delivery every single day regardless of the
| highly variable problem spaces that emerge. Without the last X
| mile capacity that a driver brings, all of the infra at UPS
| doesn't provide value. For example a driver wakes up early
| every day, rain or shine (or sleet), and is accountable for
| making sure a truck is loaded correctly at the dock, and every
| package on the route is delivered. This can include packages of
| diamonds insured for 10's of thousands, to hundred plus pound
| boxes.
|
| I only rode shotgun for a few weeks a year and it was hard
| work. From that POV it a seems like a fair wage for the role.
| Noumenon72 wrote:
| How much does this differ from the responsibilities of
| armored car drivers, who make $17/hour?
| scaasic wrote:
| They should make more too.
| justapassenger wrote:
| It's a hard work, yes. And people should get paid for hard
| work.
|
| But you're a delivery man, that's it. In each job you need to
| wake up in the morning and have responsibility to do your
| work well. And very often you're handling equipment/goods
| that exceed not only your monthly salary but your lifetime
| income.
| peterhhchan wrote:
| That's exactly why they should be are so highly paid. You
| don't want your delivery man to be texting their friends
| that they just dropped off a high value package somewhere.
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| Regarding the "high trust" part, they are tracked in real-
| time with GPS including when they scan deliveries.
| grouchomarx wrote:
| Brutal and critical job that not everyone is physically capable
| of doing
| tracker1 wrote:
| It may not be that high everywhere, not sure if it's normalized
| nationally. Also, the base pay is probably something around
| 90-120k, with the rest being medical coverage (possibly
| including family) as well as 401k matching, etc. Often over-
| valued and maybe including the employer-side taxes as well.
|
| It's also grueling work, you are on pretty tight timing, and
| relentlessly tracked. You pretty much need to hustle all day,
| and have really good bladder control. Most people are not
| willing to actually work that hard, physically. At least they
| have A/C in the trucks now, here in Phoenix I couldn't imagine
| working that job through June, July and August (top 3 reasons
| not to live here).
| clipsy wrote:
| This is the second[0] headline inaccurately claiming $170k in pay
| when it is actually expected average pay (including overtime)
| plus healthcare and other benefits. The headline from TFA is:
|
| "UPS driver pay and benefits deal in US to be worth $170,000 a
| year, firm says"
|
| Which, unless I've counted incorrectly, should fit in HN's
| headline character limits.
|
| [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37054416
| prepend wrote:
| It says "pay package" which seems to fit pay + benefits.
|
| Looks accurate to me.
| alephnerd wrote:
| Note that benefits will include insurance as well, so
| realistically base salary might be around $80-90k with the
| option of additional overtime, so not shabby by blue collar
| standards, but definetly not as comfy as similarly
| compensated desk jobs.
| clipsy wrote:
| > It says "pay package" which seems to fit pay + benefits.
|
| It seems at best like it skirts the line of "technically not
| _incorrect_ " for questionable reasons; compensation packages
| are not an uncommon topic of conversation here or in the tech
| industry generally and I've never once heard someone include
| the cost of benefits in their TC. Certainly if an employer
| quoted me a compensation package of $x and then revealed that
| 1/3rd of it was the cost of benefits I'd be quite livid.
| cma wrote:
| Does the number include the employer's portion of social
| security/Medicare taxes?
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