The United States Postal Service is set to raise the cost of a first-class stamp to 66 cents.
The increase from 63 cents will take effect July 9 unless a postal regulator overrules the hike. The agency’s price increase from 60 cents was approved in January.
The USPS has raised prices four times in the last two years and by 32% since 2019, when stamps went from 50 cents to 55 cents.
“The proposed increases will raise First-Class Mail prices approximately 5.4 percent to offset the rise in inflation. The price changes have been approved by the Governors of the U.S. Postal Service,” USPS said in a statement.
The price to send a domestic postcard will increase to 51 cents; a 1-ounce letter mailed to another country would go to $1.50. The price for a single-piece letter and flat additional-ounce price remains at 24 cents.
Earlier this year, the price of a Forever Stamp increased to 63 cents from 60 cents. Before that, stamp prices last increased in July 2022 when they jumped to 60 cents from 58 cents after prices rose by 3 cents in August 2021.
The price jumps are part of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s plan to make up a projected $160 billion budget shortfall.
“As operating expenses fueled by inflation continue to rise and the effects of a previously defective pricing model are still being felt, these price adjustments are needed to provide the Postal Service with much needed revenue to achieve financial stability,” the agency wrote in a news release. “The prices of the U.S. Postal Service remain among the most affordable in the world.”
American Postal Workers Union president Mark Dimonstein expressed concern and stressed how the agency needed to strike a balance.
“There’s certainly a balance. We’re not economists, we understand inflation’s far too high for working people, but it also affects the Post Office. They are going to have to raise some rates, in order to be able to carry out its mission. But we don’t want them raised so far, that they’re hurting customers,” Dimonstein told Federal News Network.
–Al.com and Tribune News Service contributed
