Couriers and Messengers
Pick up and deliver messages, documents, packages, and other items between offices or departments within an establishment or directly to other business concerns, traveling by foot, bicycle, motorcycle, automobile, or public conveyance.
A wage reference for United States.
Published wage percentiles describe a distribution within the source occupation group. They provide context for a career decision; employer packages and job offers have their own terms.
This wage group may include multiple detailed occupations. The figures are for the source group, which may be broader than Couriers and Messengers. They are not an exact-title, employer, experience or seniority match.
May 2025 · USD · United States. Annual and hourly figures are shown only when the source publishes them; neither is calculated from the other.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service.
Annual wage thresholds
USD per year
Hourly wage thresholds
USD per hour
| Percentile | Annual wage (USD/year) | Hourly wage (USD/hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $31,550 | $15.17 |
| 25th | $36,070 | $17.34 |
| 50th · Median | $39,200 | $18.85 |
| 75th | $45,280 | $21.77 |
| 90th | $50,330 | $24.20 |
“≥” means at least the published amount; “≤” means at most that amount. These are bounds, not exact values. “Not published” means the source did not provide that figure. Occupational wages follow the source definition and do not establish an employer’s base salary, equity or total compensation.
Where does your number sit?
Compare an entered wage with the published thresholds for United States. Your entry stays on this page.
This compares wage amounts to published percentile thresholds. It does not estimate your personal percentile, adjust for your experience, or compare total compensation. Match the wage definition and occupation group before using the result.
What this career involves.
Occupation definitions describe common work. Responsibilities and requirements vary by employer and specific job.
Selected title examples
Expand more title examples (40)
Typical tasks
- Deliver and pick up medical records, lab specimens, and medications to and from hospitals and other medical facilities.
- Walk, ride bicycles, drive vehicles, or use public conveyances to reach destinations to deliver messages or materials.
- Load vehicles with listed goods, ensuring goods are loaded correctly and taking precautions with hazardous goods.
- Receive messages or materials to be delivered, and information on recipients, such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, and delivery instructions, communicated via telephone, two-way radio, or in person.
- Deliver messages and items, such as newspapers, documents, and packages, between establishment departments and to other establishments and private homes.
- Record information, such as items received and delivered and recipients' responses to messages.
Expand more tasks (10)
- Unload and sort items collected along delivery routes.
- Sort items to be delivered according to the delivery route.
- Plan and follow the most efficient routes for delivering goods.
- Perform routine maintenance on delivery vehicles, such as monitoring fluid levels and replenishing fuel.
- Obtain signatures and payments, or arrange for recipients to make payments.
- Unload goods from large trucks, and load them onto smaller delivery vehicles.
- Open, sort, and distribute incoming mail.
- Check with home offices after completed deliveries to confirm deliveries and collections and to receive instructions for other deliveries.
- Use telephone to deliver verbal messages.
- Perform general office or clerical work, such as filing materials, operating duplicating machines, or running errands.
Skills used in this work
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
Expand more skills (29)
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Operation and Control
- Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Quality Control Analysis
- Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Troubleshooting
- Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
- Equipment Maintenance
- Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Operations Analysis
- Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
- Technology Design
- Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
- Equipment Selection
- Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
- Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
- Programming
- Writing computer programs for various purposes.
Explore wages by location.
0 retained state and local wage references are available. Start with these selected locations, or search the full market directory for this career.
Local wage references are not retained for this occupation. The national view and employer evidence may still help.
Available links reflect retained source coverage for this career.
Find the next step that fits.
Look at current disclosed job ranges, explore supported employer salary evidence, or build a proposed hiring range with your own assumptions.