If Everyone Paid Their Fair Share,
Postage Costs Could Remain Stable

Burrus Update #17-2004, Dec. 7, 2004

Recent media reports about the price of a first-class stamp going up to 41 cents overlooked a simple truth: the increase could be avoided or mitigated if high-volume mailers – the big advertisers and corporations who send millions of pieces of mail each year – paid their fair share.

These mailers receive deep postage discounts for filling America’s mailboxes with credit card offers and other solicitations. In fact, while individuals and small businesses currently pay 37 cents to mail a first-class letter, corporate mailers often pay as little as 9 cents.

Over the years, the mailing industry has established and expanded so-called “worksharing discounts” for mailers who pre-sort their mail, but the discounts far exceed the costs the USPS would incur if it sorted the mail itself.

This corporate welfare drains billions of dollars in revenue from the Postal Service every year, forcing the USPS to raise postage rates and leaving individual mailers and small businesses to make up the difference. If everyone – including the mailing industry – paid their share, postage rates could remain stable.

William Burrus
President

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