BEDFORD— On Sunday, the stamp cost increased for the second time this year, jumping five cents to 73 cents for a first-class postage stamp.
Sunday will mark the sixth increase in three years, during which first-class stamp increases rose ten percentage points faster than overall inflation.
Most people no longer use the postal service. Still, millions of businesses and organizations spend most of the $40.8 billion a year on mail, including letters, bulk mailings, junk mail, and periodicals. Higher prices are making them cut back, hurting the US Postal Service’s budget and potentially its ability to continue its crucial services, including delivering online purchases and life-saving prescription drugs.
The price of a first-class stamp reached 10 cents in 1974, just before the 200th anniversary of the service. As recently as 2002, a stamp cost 34 cents.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy laid out a 10-year plan in 2021 to modernize the service and stem ongoing losses. In April, he told the Senate that the USPS had been in a “financial death spiral” for years but that under the $40 billion modernization plan, “we are making the changes necessary to ensure that we are around to serve the country well into the future.”
