Salary
Average Salary: $45,000
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $1,878,660
You won't be able to afford bottle service at the club every night, but you'll make enough to treat yo' self every once in a while. You know, during those rare times when you're not on the road.
All nuclear material couriers start out at the minimum GS-7 federal pay scale. The General Schedule pay scale is a scale that the government uses to determine the salary of each of its workers (source). The more experience and education a federal agent has, the higher up they are on the GS scale.
Starting out as a grade GS-7 means that a nuclear courier's starting salary is around $33,939 (source). Now, for each grade there are also ten steps, so as a GS-7, step one, you might start out at $33,939, but if you're promoted to step ten, your salary can escalate to $44,176. For the bigger bucks, it's all about experience and education.
The good news about being a courier is that you aren't locked into one pay grade. An exceptional courier can expect to be promoted anywhere from GS-8 to GS-10 in the course of their career (source). At a high step GS-10 grade, a courier can expect to make around $60,000. Unlike other federal positions, which only promote agents based on how long they've been in their position, a courier is evaluated for a promotion on a yearly basis. That can add up to a lot of moolah within the first two or three years of the job alone.
Here's where it gets a little disappointing. As a courier, you're expected to relocate to New Mexico, Texas, or Tennessee. While other federal offices that require relocation pay for relocation fees...you guessed it: the Office of Secure Transportation does not pay for courier relocation fees.
So you're expected to foot the bill for a brand-new house, a plane ticket, and possibly a new car in order to move for your new job. To add insult to injury, other federal agents receive an additional income increase based on where they are stationed. A courier doesn't get that end of the bargain.
The key to making a lot of money as a courier is overtime. Couriers spend a lot of time driving big rigs all day and night to secure locations. That's a surefire way to rack up some awesome hours.