The U.S. Postal Service plans to increase the price of a stamp to $0.68 in January, part of a 2% overall increase from current mail rates.
The hike is the full amount authorized under the mailing agency’s rate-setting authority and would mark the fifth price increase under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Prices for marketing mail, periodicals and packages will all increase by around the same rate.
If the latest hike—set to go into effect Jan. 21, 2024—goes through, the price of a stamp will have increased by 24% in the more than three years since DeJoy took office. That roughly equals the rate of increase USPS oversaw in the preceding 11-year period.
The USPS board of governors has signed off on the price hike, but it must still receive final approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission. The commission allowed for the higher increases in 2020 and DeJoy has tapped into the authority on nearly every allowable occasion, calling them a key part of his plan to allow USPS to find firmer financial footing. Approval of the increases will amount to a simple checking of the math to ensure postal management stayed within the permissible formula.