While unions across the United States are flexing their striking muscles, from actors and writers to Yellow Corp truck drivers, the UPS Teamsters union just secured a massive victory for its drivers.
As reported by CNBC, the deal covers almost 350,000 workers, and “drivers will average $170,000 in pay and benefits such as health care and pensions at the end of a five-year contract.”
While that is amazing for the drivers, plenty of people have expressed anger that what they consider to be an “unskilled labor” position will be paid so handsomely. But that sentiment carries with it a basic misunderstanding of a UPS worker’s job, and the trends of the modern labor market; a misunderstanding that the entrepreneur and angel investor Jason Calacanis blindly demonstrated.
Fun with numbers:
— @jason (@Jason) August 8, 2023
UPS drivers will make $170k a year by the end of their new contract... ~$80 an hour in 2029 (really?)
10 hour shift = $800
how many packages per hour, 5? 10?
$800 / 50 packages = $16 in wages per package?
$800 / 100 packages = $8 per package?
My theory..
My theory: UPS knows robotic delivery will be here by 2029, so they are settling this contract, knowing it will be the last one.
— @jason (@Jason) August 8, 2023
Estimating the average number of packages delivered per hour at 5-10, Jason was quickly schooled by people actually in the know.
“Bless your heart,” @RandyTreibel tweeted. “More like 50-100.”
I knew dozens of drivers when I worked in one of UPS’s package divisions as a supervisor. They bust their butts day in and day out. IIRC the standard load out was around 300 pieces for an 8-10 hour day ~ 30-37 pieces an hour. And that was in the suburbs.
— Steve Lorello (@slorello) August 9, 2023
Not only was his guess plainly false, but the $170,000 mark is derived only from the top-earning employees, with CNBC reporting that the average full-time worker will bump up to about $49 an hour. Not $80. There are also numerous other blue-collar jobs that demand similar salaries.
I know a lot of truck drivers that already make this
— Frank Bruno (@FrankRBruno) August 8, 2023
It’s a 5 year 30 billion dollar contract for 340,000 people. They deliver 6.2 billion packages a year. UPS will pay less than $1 per package in wages under this deal. You are off by 10x!
— Van (@VanTheBrand) August 8, 2023
You are taking the largest wage paid to the fewest drivers and treating that as the average.
Maybe before you start to have theories and WAY before you tweet them, you should figure out how many packages per hour it actually is instead of imagining that might take...twelve minutes...to deliver one package.
— Hank Green (@hankgreen) August 9, 2023
As usual, it looks like our top 1% overlords have a basic misunderstanding of the money the rest of us are making, and what that means for our daily lives. Until Jason has to start delivering packages for a living, maybe he should keep his mouth shut about how much those people should make.
— Dave Jeffery (@DaveJ) August 8, 2023
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