WASHINGTON, D.C. — During the month of July, the United States Postal Service (USPS) will be increasing the prices of stamps, following their notice filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) earlier this year.
Today’s current price of a stamp is 58 cents. The new price will become 60 cents.
Initially proposed by President Joe Biden in April when he signed the Postal Service Reform Act into law, the new prices will include a mark-up of multiple cents for even the most common of stamps. When passed, the act removed pre-fund retiree health benefits for postal workers and secured a six-day mail delivery schedule, which was on the chopping block. By eliminating benefits, they are projected to save $50 billion in the next 10 years.
When this initially occurred, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy stated, “The mailing industry needs to be prepared for continued use of our authority to raise prices on market-dominant products at an uncomfortable rate until such time as we have accomplished our objective of projecting a trajectory that shows us becoming self-sustaining — as required by law.”
Their concerns are predicated on the USPS’s current 14 consecutive years of net losses, with their second-quarter end of 2022 showing a loss of $639 million. Some figures estimate that the postal service lost as much as $9.2 billion in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have been a factor playing into the increases.
Effective July 10, a single-piece letter will be 60 cents, a single-piece flat will be $1.20, each additional ounce for letters and flats will be 24 cents, postcards will be 44 cents, and First Class International Letters will be $1.40.
However, for those seeking a more cost-effective method, there is another option. Forever Stamps are used to mail a one-ounce letter no matter when they are purchased, or no matter how the price changes. They cost the same as a one-ounce letter, and they can be used indefinitely. Currently, they cost 58 cents but will increase by two cents when the value changes on July 10.
