UPS drivers to make $170,000 in pay and benefits following union win

UPS drivers will earn an average of $170,000 in pay and benefits at the end of a five-year contract their union negotiated with the carrier last month to avert a strike, UPS CEO Carol Tomé said during an earnings call this week.

The deal, which was reached on July 25, will increase full-time workers’ compensation to $170,000 from roughly $145,000 over five years, according to UPS’ calculations. It will also boost part-time workers’ salaries to at least $25.75 per hour and end mandatory overtime, Tomé told investors on Tuesday.

Online searches for jobs with “UPS” or “United Parcel Service” in the title jumped 50% in the week after the new pay deal was announced, Bloomberg News reported, citing data from Indeed. The executive’s comments punctuated the end of a weeks-long struggle between the Teamsters Union and UPS to secure a new contract for 340,000 union employees.

“We expected negotiations with the Teamsters to be late and loud, and they were,” Tomé said during the call. As a result, UPS slashed its full-year revenue forecasts “primarily to reflect the volume impact from labor negotiations and the costs associated with the tentative agreement,” she added.

Six-figure pay for UPS drivers

By the end of the new contract, full-time UPS delivery drivers will make an average of $49 per hour, which works out to pay of nearly $102,000 per year, assuming employees work 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year.

That places UPS drivers near the same pay grade as software developers, finance directors and physicians assistants, who all earn average salaries in the $108,000 to $115,000-range, according to Indeed.

UPS did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch’s request for comment about how drivers’ projected $170,000 in pay and benefits was calculated.

The new labor contract should “be ratified in two weeks,” with voting ending on Aug. 22, Tomé said.

UPS’ deal with the Teamsters is the “single largest private-sector collective bargaining agreement in North America,” the union group said in a blog post last month. It comes as unions notch wage increases for aviation workers and just months after a court reaffirmed union workers’ win at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse.