Troops' Pay Raises May be Whittled Down

Troops' Pay Raises May be Whittled Down
February 21, 2012
Stars and Stripes
by Leo Shane
WASHINGTON — Troops could see their lowest pay raises in four decades — far below what their civilian peers will get — if proposed changes are made in the way military raises are calculated.

Since 1999, defense officials have tied the annual military pay raise to the Employment Cost Index, the Department of Labor’s calculation in the rise in private sector wages. Military raises for 2013 and 2014 would be tied to the ECI but separated from the index in 2015, dropping to a flat 0.5 percent rate. That would be the lowest annual pay increase troops have seen since the start of the all-volunteer military in 1973.

In 2016, the rate would rise to 1 percent, not linked to the ECI. In 2017, it’d be 1.5 percent, regardless of private-sector rates.

For a mid-career enlisted servicemember, for example, the raise would be more than $1,000 a year less under the new formula. For most officers with 10 years’ experience, it’s $2,000 less a year.

Pentagon officials said last week that the plans are only tentative. The pay raises will not be official until Congress approves them each year.

But they said they’re making the plans public now to “give time for military personnel to accommodate these changes.” And unless the Defense Department sees dramatic changes in its budget realities, the lower pay raises will be needed to help rein in personnel costs and reach almost $500 billion in savings over the next decade.
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