Gift for a Missouri Mail Carrier? Here’s What They Can’t Accept

My dad worked for the US Postal Service in Missouri for more than 3 decades. He never brought gifts home and now I understand why. There are rules about what postal carriers/mail men/mail women can accept as gifts and I'm genuinely surprised at the list of do's and don'ts.

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This list of rules for gift giving involving mail carriers comes directly from the US Postal Service website. Let's begin with the don't list.

What you can never give a Missouri postal worker

Cash is a no-no. Thinking about handing your hard-working mail carrier a $20? Don't or you'll get them in trouble.

I am not confessing anything, but I think I may have family members who gave the postal carrier a check at some point in history. That's on the don't list.

It seems like the government really doesn't like it's employees having money. This is a tricky one because some gift cards are OK, but not the ones that can be turned into a store for real money.

Let's move onto the good list of what you can gift.

What you can give your hard-working Missouri postal worker

It's alright to give a gift that does not cost you more than $20 for Christmas, birthdays or any other special occasion.

This is part of that tricky gift card situation again. You can give a gift card of up to $20 if it can't be turned into cash.

One other thing to note: the US Postal Service says you can't gift your postal worker friend more than $50 worth of gifts in a calendar year. Here's the exact wording from the US Postal Service website:

All postal employees, including carriers, must comply with the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Exec­utive Branch. Under these federal regulations, carriers are permitted to accept a gift worth $20 or less from a customer per occasion, such as Christmas. However, cash and cash equivalents, such as checks or gift cards that can be exchanged for cash, must never be accepted in any amount. Furthermore, no employee may accept more than $50 worth of gifts from any one customer in any one calendar year period.

Now you know.