How much do delivery drivers get paid per hour? What are the top paying delivery jobs?
Salaries and benefits for the increasing number of delivery workers often depend on the cargo they are transporting and the company that employs them.
The minimum hourly wage for delivery drivers was set to be increased to $18 from just over $7 in New York City on July 12, but a judge has blocked the law from being implemented pending a hearing for a lawsuit filed by food delivery services DoorDash and Grubhub against the city.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Nicholas Moyne set a hearing for July 31 to determine whether the injunction should be in effect while the lawsuit plays out.
The calls for better wages for delivery drivers goes hand-in-hand with the increasing number of people who work in this position.
In 2021, the median pay for delivery drivers in the United States was $17.62 an hour, or $36,660 a year. As e-commerce grows in the coming decade, the number of workers involved in delivery is expected to increase by 10% from its current level of 1.64 million.
Which states offer the best pay to delivery drivers?
The salary offered to delivery drivers depends on four main factors: location, experience, company, and union status.
The states with the highest number of delivery drivers are Texas (45,680), California (41,480), Ohio (35,140), Florida (35,074), and Illinois (19,810). The average wage varies from $18.90/hour in California to $13.59/hour in Florida. With the exception of California, the states with the highest average wage for delivery drivers tend to be those with far fewer workers in the sector:
- North Dakota: 2,420 workers | Average pay: $22.48/hour
- Oregon: 7,010 worker | Average pay: $19.39/hour
- California: 41,480 workers | $18.90/hour
- Massachusetts: 6,790 workers | $ 18.24/hour
Which companies offer the highest salaries to delivery drivers?
According to Glassdoor, a driver for Insomnia Cookies in San Francisco can make $22 an hour, while in Colorado, FedEx offers $40/hour to attract new workers. All of these data points indicate that companies operating in multiple geographies are offering different wages to meet the demand for delivery in the area.
To complicate matters further, pay can vary between and within states. FedEx is offering delivery drivers in Massachusetts $20 an hour. Meanwhile in Texas, the same role could earn a worker $21.25/hour in Southlake or $23.12/hour in Frisco. The fact that workers are making double these figures in Colorado is a strong marker of the lack of unionization among the company’s drivers.
A much higher of number UPS delivery drivers are members of a union compared to FedEx. These higher levels of worker organization limits the dramatic differences in pay between regions. Salaries and benefits for UPS workers tend to be better, with the company offering at least $23/hour in current job postings for package delivery drivers.
However, it is not all blue skies for the union-card-carrying delivery drivers union members at UPS. Last summer, the company came under fire for refusing to upgrade its vehicles after several workers passed out from heat exhaustion while on their shift. Labor leaders pointed out that the lack of AC threatened workers and the drivers they share the roads with.
Amazon, whose workers are also unorganized, are paid between $18 and $22 an hour for delivery.
Aside from these three major private firms, the United States Postal Service could be an attractive option for those looking to make a career out of delivery. Since postal workers are employed by the government, they receive generous benefits, pension plans, pay increases commiserate with their years of service. Depending on a worker’s experience, a job as a mail carrier can garner a take-home pay of over $30 an hour.