Just seven years ago, you could buy a stamp for less than 50 cents at your local post office. But that surely sounds like science fiction at this point. The price of an individual stamp reached the 60-cent threshold in 2022, and it has only continued to climb since. Now, just months after the last rate increase, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has revealed that it's planning one of its biggest-ever price hikes for July.
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The most recent price hike from the Postal Service happened on Jan. 21 of this year, bringing the cost of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp to 68 cents. This was a 2-cent increase from its previous price of 66 cents.
In a new April 9 press release, the USPS announced that it had filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to raise prices yet again this year in July. The agency also increased stamp costs twice last year, in both January and July—something Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has indicated he plans to continue doing every year for the foreseeable future as part of his 10-year Delivering for America (DFA) plan.
But if approved by the PRC, this will be one of the largest price increases in USPS history. According to the new release, the agency is proposing a 5-cent bump to the price of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp, from 68 cents to 73 cents, to take effect on July 14.
This is the highest increase that's ever been proposed under DeJoy's leadership. Since 2021, he's been raising stamp rates between just 2 to 3 cents each time.
From 1863 to now, there has only been one other time in the Postal Service's history that the cost of a Forever stamp went up so much at once. That was in Jan. 2019, when former Postmaster General Megan Brennan also issued a 5-cent increase to bring the price per stamp up from 50 cents to 55 cents.
RELATED: USPS Head Louis DeJoy Slammed for "Fanatical Devotion to Price Hikes."
Overall, the USPS said its newest proposed rates will raise mailing services product prices by approximately 7.8 percent.
"As changes in the mailing and shipping marketplace continue, these price adjustments are needed to achieve the financial stability sought by the organization’s Delivering for America 10-year plan," the agency explained in its release. "USPS prices remain among the most affordable in the world."
But not everyone is sold on this explanation. Keep US Posted, a nonprofit advocacy group of consumers, nonprofits, newspapers, greeting card publishers, magazines, catalogs, and small businesses, is calling for the PRC to reject the Postal Service's new proposal.
"The USPS consistently blames frequent postage hikes on inflation, but inflation is just a talking point, when rate increases are consistently far and above the Consumer Price Index," Kevin Yoder, a former Republican Congressman from Kansas and executive director of Keep US Posted, said in a statement. "Price hikes are driving disastrous declines in mail volume, which is still the biggest money-maker for the USPS."
