UPS Teamsters to get $1.22 raise on August 1 after progression

UPS Teamsters who have completed progression will get a $1.22 raise on Aug. 1, a bump that includes a 22-cent cost-of-living adjustment on top of this year’s negotiated $1 per hour wage increase. For topped-out workers, that money will show up in the next paycheck after the date hits; for workers still moving through progression, the raise will follow the contract’s step schedule instead of landing as the full top-rate amount.

The increase applies to members who have already finished progression under the UPS contract. A package handler, package car driver, feeder driver or mechanic who is still climbing the wage ladder will not be in the same pay bucket as a topped-out employee. Progression status, the correct step date and whether the raise was calculated off the right rate all affect what lands on the stub.

Article 33 of the 2023-2028 UPS Teamsters National Master Agreement provides the 22-cent COLA. The 2026 COLA allowance is 22 cents per hour and 55 cents per mile for mileage-paid UPS Teamsters, and those COLA increases will be added to the year’s negotiated $1 per hour wage increase.

Mileage-paid members will also see their rates rise. Single-rate mileage pay will go to 2.84 cents per mile, double-rate to 2.89 cents per mile and triple-rate to 2.94 cents per mile. The Teamsters Package Division is notifying locals nationwide about the increase.

In 2022, UPS Teamsters received a 82-cent COLA increase effective Aug. 1 on top of a $1.00 base wage raise after the Consumer Price Index level reached 288.022 in May. In the 2023 contract push, top-rate wage steps would move from $44.25 in 2023 after a $2.75 increase to $45.00 in 2024, $45.75 in 2025, $46.75 in 2026 and $49.00 in 2027, while eliminating the two-tier 22.4 driver classification and converting those drivers to RPCDs.