AirborneSpoon -- For starters, thank you for your service.
-- That 24 years of military service just might prepare you for some of the BS you will encounter in the post office. The 3 years of prior postal service will be nothing like what is going on these days.
" I will be retiring from the military with 24 years of active duty along with 3 years of USPS experience from way back."
-- Having a retirement check coming from the military probably will give you a better chance of hanging on as an RCA until a regular slot opens up.
-- In some offices, it is like the US Coast Guard regarding advancement: someone had to retire or die before others move up.
"Will my 24 years in the Army automatically take me up to the Step 10 pay?"
-- Who have you been talking to?
-- It will take you about 10 years ( 1-year increments ) to reach Step 10 pay -- once you make regular - and another 3 years to reach to the top rung of Step 13. That is provided some arbitrator doesn't add additional steps to additional pay Tables, which depend on hiring dates.
-- Only the time spent as a regular carrier is used towards computing postal retirement. Unless you forego your military retirement and buy back all your military time. But that is something you need to ask during orientation. Tell them you have had prior USPS time too -- assuming it was as an RCA. Not sure, but it might affect your hiring date info. Anyone??
-- Your military time should boost your leave earning -- once you make regular - from 1/2 a day ( normally for less than 3 years of service ) per pay period to 3/4 per pay period ( for over 3, but less than 15 years of service ). Again, something to bring up during orientation.
" If I do get hired as a full timer what should I expect my hourly wage to be? "
-- Think positive! When you become a regular carrier, what you earn as a salary will depend on your route's hourly classification. If you remember from you prior postal service, there are H-, J-, and K-routes that regulars cover. The hours run from 40 to 46 with 47 + 48 being temporary classification until manglement can get around to cutting them down. Unlike the other postal unions, the NRCLA still has the evaluated pay system, which is undergoing massive reviews and studies. It was supposed to be in place on 20 MAY 2015, per the arbitrator's award, but many are still working the bugs out of it.
-- Pay Table Two, Step 1: 40 hour route = $39,448 while a 48 hour route = $51,267. If you need an rough hourly rate, divide each by 2080 -- the total mount of hours worked per year. Go over 2080 or worse, 2240 in a year and things get really ugly. As an RCA, you will have plenty of time to see what happens to regulars when they exceed those figures. Of just Google "rural carrier salary".
"Is the Rural Carrier a GS 6 position?"
-- Good question. Don't know if GS positions apply to rural carriers.. Ask that at orientation.
-- Last I heard, rural carriers were trying to get Level 6 pay, same as City Carriers ( NALC ). So that would make rural carriers some type of Level 5.
-- Your "probationary period" will be 90 work days or 1 calendar year, which ever comes first. Any day you work, even for an hour or two, counts as a work day. During the probationary period, manglement can fire you for any ole reason they can come up with and the union ( the NRLCA ) can't do much of anything to help you until after completing your probationary period. Once you have completed your probationary period, don't make a big deal of it -- just keep working. Don't make is easy for manglement to fire you. Do the job "by the book" ( once you have learned the book! ). Do the job everyday like the Sgt Major is looking over your shoulder.
With military retirement, you can afford to hang on longer as an RCA before deciding the job in just not right for you. Like military units, some are great while some are horrible. Location and personnel also factor into the mix. Like first getting into the military, it is best to keep your head down and your ears open. Volunteering is at your own peril.
Good luck.
