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The differences between postal clerks and mail clerks can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a postal clerk has an average salary of $38,239, which is higher than the $30,383 average annual salary of a mail clerk.
The top three skills for a postal clerk include customer service, postal service and postage rates. The most important skills for a mail clerk are customer service, delivery sequence, and place packages.
| Postal Clerk | Mail Clerk | |
| Yearly salary | $38,239 | $30,383 |
| Hourly rate | $18.38 | $14.61 |
| Growth rate | -6% | -6% |
| Number of jobs | 93,101 | 80,560 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 36% | High School Diploma, 37% |
| Average age | 52 | 45 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
A postal clerk is responsible for organizing mails for delivery and categorizing other mailroom supplies. Postal clerks sort mail and packages, verify the accurate addresses, and deliver to the correct location. They also operate various postal tools and equipment for labeling documents and weighing parcels. A postal clerk must be highly communicative and organizational, especially on responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns about their deliveries and handling fragile packages with utmost care to avoid complications and operational delays.
A mail clerk is responsible for sorting and processing mails for the business. Mail clerks' duties include maintenance of mailing supplies by regularly monitoring inventory, forwarding incoming mails and safe packages to appropriate departments, labeling outgoing mails with secured packaging, keeping records of acknowledged mails, and returning misdirected mails to the correct recipient. A mail clerk must be detail-oriented, as well as having strong organizational and multi-tasking skills to arrange deliveries, operate mailing machines, and categorize efficiently.
Postal clerks and mail clerks have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Postal Clerk | Mail Clerk | |
| Average salary | $38,239 | $30,383 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $50,000 | Between $22,000 And $41,000 |
| Highest paying City | Providence, RI | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | New York | Washington |
| Best paying company | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University | Columbia University in the City of New York |
| Best paying industry | Government | Retail |
There are a few differences between a postal clerk and a mail clerk in terms of educational background:
| Postal Clerk | Mail Clerk | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 36% | High School Diploma, 37% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between postal clerks' and mail clerks' demographics:
| Postal Clerk | Mail Clerk | |
| Average age | 52 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 47.2% Female, 52.8% | Male, 50.7% Female, 49.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 15.6% Unknown, 3.8% Hispanic or Latino, 14.6% Asian, 10.6% White, 55.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 11.1% Unknown, 3.5% Hispanic or Latino, 17.3% Asian, 6.1% White, 61.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 7% |