Military Pay

Militarypay.com is your single most-awesome resource for hot fast-breaking military pay scale, recruiting career information for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. Within minutes, you can learn all about how to get the best military jobs, discover which military service is "perfect" for you, experience a "day in the life" of the military, what military jobs offers the best paying civilian careers long "after" your military career? and much more!

Reports of recruiting and retention problems in the armed forces have received increasing attention in the news media. Undoubtedly, failure to provide military personnel with adequate pay and benefits would, over the long run, threaten U.S. military capability. Members of this Subcommittee in particular are aware of the problems caused by the so-called hollow force of the 1970s, when low-quality recruits, a lack of experienced personnel, and insufficient training weakened the effectiveness and reputation of the U.S. military.

Militarypay.com outlines the basic recruitment and pay structure of US Military.

Most enlisted members enter the military in the lowest pay grade (E-1) and work their way up the ladder to positions of leadership and greater responsibility. There are literally hundreds of different jobs for enlisted military members. Many of the jobs available for enlisted members are similar between the services. For instance, a firefighter in the Army and a firefighter in the Air Force.

Enlisted Rank
Each service has its own names for the various enlisted ranks (Navy and Coast Guard are the same). Although they are called by different names each pay grade is the same throughout all the services. Enlisted pay grades go from E-1 through E-9 (the "E" represents Enlisted). Because they are equivalent, the base pay for each pay grade is the same throughout the military branches.

Militarypay.com presents the general opinion of the articles, journals, columnists to its readers and these contents are frequently updated to provide the best and latest information.

Featured article: April 3-04-2003
General Discussion
American soldiers on the front lines in the Iraq war earn little more than a theater usher or crossing guard, according to a new survey of military pay. Front-line battle troops, mostly those who hold the rank of private and have been in the military about a year, earn less than $16,000 a year -- some of the lowest pay around, the Challenger, Gray and Christmas survey noted.

In fact, the Challenger study looked at hundreds of jobs listed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and found only five other jobs paid less than the $15,480 a year earned by privates.

At the other end of the spectrum, Gen. Tommy Franks, a 36-year Army vet leading the U.S. Central Command that's overseeing military action in Iraq, earns a base pay of $153,948 a year. That's about $12,829 a month.

Franks' peers in corporate America -- chief executive officers -- had compensation packages averaging $11 million in 2001, when a slowing economy lowered bonuses and the value of stock options fell sharply.

Most soldiers, however, get more than just basic pay. Those on active duty are given an allowance for housing and subsistence, incentive pay, medical and other benefits, said Christopher Michel, chief executive of Military Advantage, a San Francisco-based company that provides services to current and past members of the military. Combat pay varies, but it's generally an additional $150 a month in a soldier's check.

"Special pay and incentive pay" is added for such duties as flying or diving, for hardship and for foreign language proficiency, depending on one's assignment and skills. Military personnel and their families also have commissary and Post Exchange privileges, which allow them to buy items often for less than they would pay at conventional stores.

"In fact, disposable income can be quite high for military families," said Anne Dwane, vice president at Military Advantage. And it's gotten a little better in recent years. The fiscal 2003 budget includes $47 billion set aside for pay increases for military personnel, who will get a minimum 4.1 percent raise across the board this year, Dwane said.

Still, basic military pay is relatively low compared with corporate paychecks. The $26,200-a-year starting salary for second lieutenants, for example, is equal to annual salaries for sales clerks at clothing stores ($26,780); receptionists ($26,208); pest control workers ($26,208); and shoe repairers ($26,364).

"It certainly looks like there's an inequitable distribution of pay given the trade-offs and risks of the jobs," said Mitch Barnes, Atlanta-based principal at Mercer Human Resource Consulting. "Certainly a theater usher doesn't have the kind of risk that a corporal or private in the field has."

But Barnes cautioned against making comparisons between private enterprise and public service. "Many people who are employed by the military do it for reasons far beyond the compensation package offered to them," he said.

The military offers training that people later use in corporate America, which makes the work attractive, Barnes said. But, he went on to say, corporate America and the military have two different objectives when it comes to compensation.