UPS Agrees With Union: Annual Salary For Drivers Is $170,000

Shipping giant UPS said its profits will be lower than expected this year, taking into account wage increases it has agreed to give drivers in the United States.

UPS said an average full-time five-year driver would earn approximately $170K gross a year, including health care and other benefits. Currently, the gross earnings of the workers were at the level of $140,000 per year. Thus, the wages of drivers increased by 20 percent.

EXPLODED CALLS

As a result, full-time UPS drivers will earn approximately $170,000 in wages and benefits annually through the end of the five-year contract. Part-time workers will earn at least $25.75 per hour and are eligible for full health insurance and a pension.

After the company’s announcement, there was also an explosion in the number of job seekers for a UPS driver position. According to data shared with Bloomberg, online job search platform Indeed saw a more than 50 percent increase in searches for UPS after the deal was announced.

HIGH ON INFLATION

Although workers’ demands for a raise were met due to the most severe inflation in the last 40 years in the US, wage increases were well above the level of inflation. The increase in consumer prices reached 9 percent last year and then slowed to 3 percent.

The actions of the Teamsters union had deeply affected UPS, as the threat of strikes diverted nearly a million packages a day to rival companies, costing the company nearly $200 million in sales.

STRIKE SPREAD

As households put pressure on their budgets due to the rising cost of living in the US, workers demanded more wage increases and many large companies, especially Starbucks, witnessed a wave of strikes.

In the US, film and television writers, California dock workers and Pennsylvania locomotive workers are on strike. In addition, there is a possibility that workers at the three major auto companies (Ford, General Motors and Stellantis) will go on strike in September.