The U.S. Postal Service is increasing the price of first-class mail stamps Sunday from 63 cents to 66 cents.
The move follows a price hike just this past January from 60 cents to 63 cents a stamp.
The price increase is meant to offset inflationary pressures and a 3% drop first-class mail volumes in the past year to its lowest level in half a century. Overall mail volume is down 51% since 2006.
“[T]hese price adjustments are needed to provide the Postal Service with much needed revenue,” the USPS said Friday.
The Postal Regulatory Commission approved the latest 3-cent, or 5.4%, hike.
First class is the highest revenue-generating mail class, as it’s used to send letters and pay bills. It accounted for $24.2 billion or nearly one-third of all USPS revenue in 2022. The Postal Service brought in a total revenue of $78.8 billion that year.
Among government mandates upon the USPS is the requirement that the federal agency remain self-financing.
In 2013, the Postal Service contracted with Amazon.com to deliver packages, including on Sundays in a bid to remain profitable—only to find itself in a legal battle over religious accommodations that was decided this year by the Supreme Court in favor of a postal worker who asserted that rules dictating he work on Sundays came in conflict with his religious beliefs.
In April 2022 President Biden signed legislation providing USPS with $48 billion in financial relief over ten years.
