A postmaster is the person in charge of a local post office. They manage the facility’s daily operations, supervise the carriers and clerks who handle your mail, and serve as the point of contact between the U.S. Postal Service and the community. Every standalone post office in the country, from a small rural branch to a large urban hub, has a postmaster or an officer-in-charge running it.
What a Postmaster Actually Does
A postmaster’s job sits at the intersection of management, logistics, and customer service. On any given day, they’re overseeing mail sorting and delivery schedules, making sure carriers have the supplies they need, handling staffing issues, and resolving problems for customers who walk through the door. They’re responsible for everything that happens inside their post office and on the routes that originate from it.
Some of the duties are surprisingly hands-on. Postmasters have the authority to decide whether a particular item is safe and eligible to be mailed. If something potentially dangerous turns up in the mail stream, the postmaster is authorized to take whatever steps are reasonable to protect employees and equipment. They also oversee specialty mail services like registered, insured, certified, and COD mail, making sure those items are handled correctly before going out for delivery.
In smaller offices, the postmaster may work the counter, sell stamps, and sort mail alongside their staff. In larger facilities, the role is more purely managerial, focused on budgets, performance metrics, employee evaluations, and coordination with district leadership. Postmasters at every level report up through USPS’s management hierarchy, but they have significant day-to-day autonomy over how their office runs.
How Postmasters Are Hired
Postmasters are federal employees, not elected officials. They’re hired through the USPS’s internal job posting system, and the vast majority are promoted from within the Postal Service. A typical path starts as a mail carrier, clerk, or mail handler, then moves into a supervisory role before reaching postmaster. There’s no formal degree requirement, but candidates need years of postal experience and must pass through a competitive selection process that evaluates leadership ability, operational knowledge, and management skills.
New postmasters go through USPS training programs that cover everything from financial management to labor relations. Once appointed, they serve on the Executive and Administrative Schedule (EAS), which is the pay system for USPS managers and supervisors, separate from the pay scales that cover carriers and clerks.
Postmaster Pay by Office Size
A postmaster’s salary depends primarily on the size and revenue of the post office they manage. USPS assigns each postmaster position an EAS grade, and larger, busier offices carry higher grades. As of January 2026, EAS salary ranges look like this:
- Small rural offices (EAS-15 to EAS-18): $60,380 to $104,210, depending on grade and experience within that grade.
- Mid-size offices (EAS-20 to EAS-22): $89,730 to $128,230.
- Large offices (EAS-24 to EAS-26): $103,850 to $156,380.
Each grade has a minimum and maximum salary, and postmasters move through the range over time based on performance. A postmaster who wants a significant pay bump typically needs to apply for and transfer to a larger office at a higher grade. Benefits include the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) pension, the Thrift Savings Plan (the federal government’s version of a 401(k)), and federal health insurance.
Postmaster vs. Postmaster General
The terms sound similar but describe very different jobs. A postmaster runs a single local post office. The Postmaster General runs the entire U.S. Postal Service, overseeing roughly 630,000 employees and more than 34,000 post offices nationwide. The Postmaster General is appointed by the USPS Board of Governors, not by the President, and is essentially the CEO of the organization. When people refer to “the postmaster” in everyday conversation, they almost always mean the person in charge of their local office.
How the Role Has Changed
The position of postmaster is one of the oldest in the United States. Benjamin Franklin held the title of Postmaster General (then a colonial appointment) in 1775. For much of American history, local postmasters were political appointments, often handed out as rewards to supporters of the winning party. That system ended in the early 20th century when the role shifted to a merit-based civil service position.
Today, the job looks different than it did even 20 years ago. As mail volume has declined and package volume has surged, postmasters spend more time managing parcel logistics and less time overseeing letter sorting. USPS has also consolidated many smaller post offices or downgraded them to contract-operated stations, which means fewer full postmaster positions exist than in previous decades. The postmasters who remain manage increasingly complex operations that blend traditional mail delivery with a growing package business.