A Look at Cash Compensation for Active Duty Military Personnel

A Look at Cash Compensation for Active Duty Military Personnel PDF Author: Beth J. Asch
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society
ISBN: 9780833031747
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
Overview of military compensation for active duty officer and enlisted personnel in 1999.

A Look at Cash Compensation for Active Duty Military Personnel

A Look at Cash Compensation for Active Duty Military Personnel PDF Author: Beth J. Asch
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society
ISBN: 9780833031747
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
Overview of military compensation for active duty officer and enlisted personnel in 1999.

A Look At Cash Compensation for Active-Duty Military Personnel

A Look At Cash Compensation for Active-Duty Military Personnel PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
This report presents an overview of military compensation for active-duty officer and enlisted personnel in 1999. It provides information on the receipt and amount of each type of cash pay, highlighting the patterns by year of service, occupational area, and branch of service. It also quantifies the range of variation in military pay and includes data on private-sector pay variation for comparison. The report should be of interest to policymakers and to researchers concerned with military compensation The research was undertaken for the ninth Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation, whose purpose is to investigate the adequacy of the military compensation system and recommend improvements as needed. The Office of Special Projects and Research, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, sponsored the research. The research was conducted in the Forces and Resources Policy Center at RAND's National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the unified commands, and the defense agencies.

Cash Compensation for Active-duty Military Personnel

Cash Compensation for Active-duty Military Personnel PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 2

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Book Description


Military Personnel

Military Personnel PDF Author: Brenda S. Farrell
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437931685
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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Book Description
Compares pay and benefits provided to members of the Armed Forces (AF) with that of comparably situated private-sector employees to assess how the differences in pay and benefits affect recruiting and retention of members of the AF. The objectives were to: (1) assess total military compensation for active duty officers and for enlisted personnel; (2) compare private-sector pay and benefits for civilians of similar age, educ., and experience with similar job responsibilities and working conditions of officers and enlisted personnel of the AF; and (3) assess the 10th QRMC recommendation to include regular military compensation and select benefits when comparing military and civilian compensation to ascertain if it is appropriate.

Military Compensation

Military Compensation PDF Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description


Military Pay

Military Pay PDF Author: Congressional Research Congressional Research Service
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781507737033
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
From the earliest days of the republic, America's Armed Forces have been compensated for their services by the federal government. While the original pay structure was fairly simple, over time a more complex system of compensation has evolved. Today's military compensation includes cash payments such as basic pay, special and incentive pays, and various allowances. Servicemembers also receive non-cash benefits such as health care and access to commissaries and recreational facilities, and may eventually qualify for deferred compensation in the form of retired pay and other retirement benefits. This report provides an overview of military compensation generally, but focuses on cash compensation for current servicemembers. Since the advent of the all-volunteer force in 1973, Congress has used military pay and allowances to improve recruiting, retention, and the overall quality of the force. Congressional interest in sustaining the all-volunteer force during a time of sustained combat operations led to substantial increases in compensation in the decade following the September 11th attacks. More recently, concerns over government spending have generated congressional interest in slowing the rate of growth in military compensation. Some have raised concerns about the impact of personnel costs on the overall defense budget, arguing that they decrease the amount of funds available for modernizing equipment and sustaining readiness. Others argue that robust compensation is essential to maintaining a high-quality force that is vigorous, well-trained, experienced, and able to function effectively in austere and volatile environments. The availability of funding to prosecute wars in Iraq and Afghanistan mitigated the pressure to trade-off personnel, readiness, and equipment costs, but the current budgetary environment appears to have brought these trade-offs to the fore again. The average cost to compensate an active duty servicemember-to include cash, benefits, and contributions to retirement programs-is estimated at about $90,000-$100,000 per year, although some estimates are higher (methodologies vary). However, gross compensation figures do not tell the full story, as military compensation relative to civilian compensation is a key factor in an individual's decision to join or stay in the military. Thus, the issue of comparability between military and civilian pay is an often-discussed topic. Some analysts and advocacy groups have argued that a substantial "pay gap" has existed for decades-with military personnel earning less than their civilian counterparts-although they generally concede that this gap is fairly small today. Others argue that the methodology behind this "pay gap" is flawed and does not provide a suitable estimate of pay comparability. Still others believe that military personnel, in general, are better compensated than their civilian counterparts. This latter perspective has become more prominent in the past few years. The Department of Defense takes a different approach to pay comparability. The 9th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC), published in 2002, argued that compensation for servicemembers should be around the 70th percentile of wages for civilian employees with similar education and experience. However, according to the 11th QRMC, published in 2012, it had reached the 83% level for officers and the 90% level for enlisted personnel.

Military Pay

Military Pay PDF Author: Congressional Research Service
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781545218822
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 28

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Book Description
The current military compensation system includes cash payments such as basic pay, special and incentive pays, and various allowances. Servicemembers also receive noncash benefits such as health care and access to commissaries and recreational facilities, and may eventually qualify for deferred compensation in the form of retired pay and other retirement benefits. This report provides an overview of military compensation generally, but focuses on cash compensation for current servicemembers. Since the advent of the all-volunteer force in 1973, Congress has used military compensation to improve recruiting, retention, and the overall quality of the force. Congressional interest in sustaining the all-volunteer force during a time of sustained combat operations led to substantial increases in compensation in the decade following the September 11 attacks. More recently, concerns over government spending have generated congressional and executive branch interest in slowing the rate of growth in military compensation. Recent initiatives in this regard have included presidentially directed increases in basic pay below the rate of increase for the Employment Cost Index (ECI) for 2014-2016 and statutory authority for DOD to reduce BAH payments by 1% of the national average monthly housing cost per year from 2015-2019 (for a maximum reduction of 5% under the national monthly average housing cost). Some have raised concerns about the impact of personnel costs on the overall defense budget, arguing that they decrease the amount of funds available for modernizing equipment and sustaining readiness. Others argue that robust compensation is essential to maintaining a high-quality force that is vigorous, well-trained, experienced, and able to function effectively in austere and volatile environments. The availability of funding to prosecute wars in Iraq and Afghanistan mitigated the pressure to trade-off personnel, readiness, and equipment costs, but the current budgetary environment appears to have brought these trade-offs to the fore again. DOD spends about $100,000-$110,000 per year to compensate the average active duty servicemember - to include cash, benefits, and contributions to retirement programs - although some estimates of compensation costs are higher. However, gross compensation figures do not tell the full story, as military compensation relative to civilian compensation is a key factor in an individual's decision to join or stay in the military. Thus, the issue of comparability between military and civilian pay is an often-discussed topic. Some analysts and advocacy groups have argued that a substantial "pay gap" has existed for decades - with military personnel earning less than their civilian counterparts - although they generally concede that this gap is fairly small today. Others argue that the methodology behind this "pay gap" is flawed and does not provide a suitable estimate of pay comparability. Still others believe that military personnel, in general, are better compensated than their civilian counterparts. This latter perspective has become more prominent in the past few years. The Defense Department's 9th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC), published in 2002, argued that compensation for servicemembers should be around the 70th percentile of wages for civilian employees with similar education and experience. However, according to the 11th QRMC, published in 2012, it had reached the 83% level for officers and the 90% level for enlisted personnel. On January 29, 2015, the congressionally established Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission delivered its final report to Congress. It included a variety of recommendations for restructuring military compensation, most notably with regards to the military retirement and health care system, but did not recommend substantially altering the elements of cash compensation on which this report focuses.

Military Compensation: Balancing Cash and Noncash Benefits

Military Compensation: Balancing Cash and Noncash Benefits PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 9

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Book Description
To attract and retain the military personnel that it needs, the Department of Defense (DoD) must offer a compensation package that is competitive with those in the civilian sector and that adequately rewards service members for the rigors of military life. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that in 2002 (the most recent year for which comprehensive data are available), the average active-duty service member received a compensation package worth about $99,000. Noncash compensation represents almost 60 percent of the military pay package. Cash compensation -- basic pay, allowances for things like food and housing, special pay and bonuses, and the tax advantage that service members receive because some allowances are not subject to federal income tax -- makes up the other 40 percent. This issue brief provides an overview of the military compensation package and the issues surrounding the current mix of compensation. The military's traditional use of noncash benefits reflects, in part, a belief that such benefits are cost-effective because they support unit cohesion and reduce the costs that service members incur in searching for new schools, stores, and housing as they move among installations. However, today's military increasingly emphasizes a more expeditionary force -- deploying service members overseas without their families for a shorter period of time rather than rotating members and families to and from overseas garrisons for extended tours. Therefore, some analysts believe that a compensation package more heavily weighted toward cash, which would allow service members to choose the goods and services that they valued most, would enable DoD to maintain a larger and even more capable force for the same total cost.

Report of the President's Commission on Military Compensation

Report of the President's Commission on Military Compensation PDF Author: United States. President's Commission on Military Compensation
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Military pensions
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description


Costs of Military Pay and Benefits in the Defense Budget

Costs of Military Pay and Benefits in the Defense Budget PDF Author: CBo
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781481155441
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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Book Description
Compensation of military personnel takes up asubstantial portion of the nation's defense budget. In its fiscal year 2013 budget request, for example, the Department of Defense (DoD) requested about $150 billion to fund the pay and benefits of current and retired members of the armed services. As in most recent years, thatamount was more than one-quarter of DoD's total base budget request (the request for all funding other than for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and for related activities-often called overseas contingency operations).The compensation request involved four majorareas:- Current cash compensation for service members, consisting of basic pay, food and housing allowances, bonuses, and various types of special pay;- Accrual payments that account for the future cash compensation of current service members in the form of pensions for those who will retire from the military (generally after at least 20 years of service);- Accrual payments that account for the future costs of health care for current service members (under a program called TRICARE for Life) who will retire from the military and also become eligible forMedicare (generally at age 65); and- Funding for current spending under the militaryhealth care program (known as TRICARE), excluding the costs of caring for current military retirees who also are eligible for Medicare (the latter costs are covered by the accrual payments made in earlier years, just described).In all, about 1.4 million active-duty military personnel and about 1.1 million members of the reserves and National Guard receive current cash compensation, the largest part of compensation in DoD's budget. Cash compensation for members of the reserves and National Guard goes mainly to the 840,000 members of the Selected Reserve-service members who are assigned to and train regularly with standing units. Second in totalcost to current cash compensation, military health benefits are available to nearly 10 million people: active-duty military personnel and their eligible family members, retired military personnel and their eligible family members, survivors of service members who died while on active duty, and certain members of the reserves and National Guard.This report does not consider the costs of the benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)- about $130 billion in that department's 2013 budget request. Those benefits include health care for veteranswith service-connected disabilities and for veterans who meet certain other eligibility criteria. Other VA benefits include monthly cash payments that compensate for service-connected disabilities and GI Bill benefits that reimburse some of the costs of higher education.This report also does not consider the costs of pay and benefits for DoD's roughly 790,000 full-time-equivalent civilian employees, other than for the 60,000 who are assigned to the military health care system and whose compensation contributes to the estimate of the total cost of delivering military health care.