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Military Pay Competitive With Private Sector By Lisa Daniel American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 28, 2010 – Military compensation is competing well against the private sector, as evidenced by the high rate of recruitment and retention, a Defense Department official told a Senate subcommittee today. Therefore, the department is focusing on targeted special pays and bonuses as an efficient means to give incentives for people to sign up for hard-to-fill and hard-to-retain specialties, William J. Carr, deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel policy, told the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel subcommittee. Using regular military compensation basic pay combined with housing and food allowances and federal tax advantages – as a comparison, military members are paid higher than 70 percent of their private-sector peers of similar education and experience, Carr said. A $340 million investment in such pays could provide $30,000 bonuses to more than 11,000 servicemembers the military especially needs, Carr said, while the same amount would buy only a 0.5 percent across-the-board basic pay raise for all servicemembers. At the same time, however, it is important to ensure regular compensation remains competitive, he said, noting the department’s request for a 1.4 percent across-the-board pay increase for next year. Carr called specialty and incentive pays “essential,” especially for special operations forces and people with medical, dentistry, mental health, aviation and nuclear skills. The services paid out $6.4 billion in specialty pays last year, comprising 4.4 percent of the personnel budget. The department is requesting $5.6 billion for 2011. The decrease does not mean such targeted incentives are less important, Carr said. Rather, he explained, it reflects less need to use them during the slow economic recovery. When recruiting and retention dropped in the strong job market of the late 1990s, Congress and Defense Department officials reacted quickly, Carr said. Since 2002, pay has risen 42 percent, housing allowance has gone up by 83 percent, and the subsistence allowance has grown by 40 percent, he said, compared to a 32 percent rise in private-sector salaries. Three outside military experts – Brenda Farrell of the Government Accountability Office, Carla Tighe Murray of the Congressional Budget Office and James Hosek of the RAND Corporation think tank’s national security division – testified with Carr and agreed that the overall military compensation package compares well against the private sector, with some studies placing military compensation equal to or greater than 80 percent of their civilian counterparts. Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, a former Navy secretary who chairs the subcommittee, said military pay has risen dramatically in the three decades of the all-volunteer force. MilitaryConnection.com is a portal of all things military. We appreciate your service and patronage and continuously work to be your “go-to” site for employment and education information. We work to connect members of military and veteran communities as well as their families with outstanding jobs. We handle all occupational areas including healthcare, transportation, law enforcement, trades, security, high tech and much more. You will find excellent jobs for military and veterans in both the civilian and government sectors on our site. MilitaryConnection.com is proud to present a multitude of resources for those seeking employment opportunities including a variety of articles and job tips aimed to help you find work. We also have many valuable resources including our Virtual Job Fair, Directory of Employers and the Military Connection Job Board with thousands of nationwide jobs. MilitaryConnection.com recognizes the wonderful contributions of Transition Officers and Veteran Service Officers. We value their hard work and are proud to work with and for them. When the next tour is back home, it’s on MilitaryConnection.com. |
