An Overview of Past Proposals for Military Retirement Reform

An Overview of Past Proposals for Military Retirement Reform PDF Author: John Christian
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833039873
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Book Description
By one estimate, between fiscal years 1995 and 2005, total compensation costs for current and former military personnel increased by almost 60 percent. The military retirement benefit remains a significant portion of these costs, and every change to accessions, retention, and basic pay today will have a future effect on pension expenditures. This technical report provides an overview of the history of U.S. military retirement studies and associated legislation, with a particular focus on the past 60 years of proposed reforms. It is organized around the following five major issues that have driven attempts at retirement system reform: cost, equity, selective retention, civilian comparability, and force management flexibility. The author finds that cost alone is reason to analyze the current retirement system, and reform proposals of the past have focused carefully on cost. However, he also finds that, as the military's mission evolves over time, it is also important to consider the sometimes subtle incentive effects that the retirement system has on service member behavior. Beyond considerations of cost, reform of the military retirement system necessarily involves ramifications for force structure and operational readiness.

An Overview of Past Proposals for Military Retirement Reform

An Overview of Past Proposals for Military Retirement Reform PDF Author: John Christian
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833039873
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Book Description
By one estimate, between fiscal years 1995 and 2005, total compensation costs for current and former military personnel increased by almost 60 percent. The military retirement benefit remains a significant portion of these costs, and every change to accessions, retention, and basic pay today will have a future effect on pension expenditures. This technical report provides an overview of the history of U.S. military retirement studies and associated legislation, with a particular focus on the past 60 years of proposed reforms. It is organized around the following five major issues that have driven attempts at retirement system reform: cost, equity, selective retention, civilian comparability, and force management flexibility. The author finds that cost alone is reason to analyze the current retirement system, and reform proposals of the past have focused carefully on cost. However, he also finds that, as the military's mission evolves over time, it is also important to consider the sometimes subtle incentive effects that the retirement system has on service member behavior. Beyond considerations of cost, reform of the military retirement system necessarily involves ramifications for force structure and operational readiness.

Military Retirement Reform

Military Retirement Reform PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services. Subcommittee on Military Personnel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description


A Policy Analysis of Reserve Retirement Reform

A Policy Analysis of Reserve Retirement Reform PDF Author: Beth J. Asch
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833078127
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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Book Description
As the burden of defense borne by reserve forces has increased, more attention has been paid to differences between the compensation systems for the reserve and active components. One particular emphasis is on the retirement systems, a key difference being that reserve members who complete 20 years must wait until age 60 to draw benefits whereas active members can draw benefits immediately upon discharge. This monograph compares the reserve and active retirement systems, discusses the importance of structuring compensation to enable flexibility in managing active and reserve manpower, describes how the debate over reserve retirement reform has differed from active component retirement reform debate, and considers obstacles to reform and how they might be overcome. It also provides a quantitative assessment of several past congressional proposals to change the reserve retirement system in terms of their effects on reserve participation and personnel costs, concluding that proposals to reduce the age at which eligible members may begin receiving retirement benefits are not cost-effective means of sustaining or increasing reserve component retention. It also concludes that a menu of member options can be a powerful tool to maintain morale and overcome obstacles to reform. Current members could be given the choice of staying in the current retirement system or joining the new one, and the choice might be offered over a period of time, say five years. New entrants and reentrants with few years of service might be placed under the new system.

Twenty Years of Service

Twenty Years of Service PDF Author: Brandon J. Archuleta
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700629769
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Military pension policies are as old as the republic itself and reside at the intersection of American social, economic, and defense policy. But as the nation’s social and economic circumstances underwent dramatic changes over the last half century, military pension policy remained static, stuck in the personnel and retirement model of the industrial age. This book examines why. Integrating policy history, theory, and practice, Twenty Years of Service provides the most comprehensive examination of US military pension policy in a generation. Brandon J. Archuleta sets the stage with an exploration of the rise, evolution, and transformation of the veterans’ policy subsystem from the American Revolution through World War II. The ensuing theoretical overview explains how the military personnel policy subsystem achieved the autonomy it enjoyed from 1948 to 2018; it also offers a new perspective on autonomous policy subsystems in general, which helps to account for the long-term pension policy stasis. In practical terms, Archuleta explores the role of the successful 2015 Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission as an institutional venue for policy change during the congressional budget battles of the 2010s. Through extensive archival research, illustrative case studies, and field interviews with Pentagon bureaucrats, congressional staffers, veterans’ lobbyists, defense scholars, and journalists, Twenty Years of Service brings the policymaking process to life. Its insights will prove invaluable to policy scholars and defense practitioners alike.

Recent Changes to the U. S. Military Retirement System

Recent Changes to the U. S. Military Retirement System PDF Author: Committee on Committee on Armed Services United States Senate
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781512017649
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 118

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Book Description
The Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2013 included a provision that reduced the cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for working age military retirees by 1 percent until the retiree reaches the age of 62, at which time retired pay is adjusted to the level it would have been had the COLA not been reduced. In a USA Today column defending the legislation, Congressman Paul Ryan explained the provision as follows: "We make no changes for those currently at or above age 62. This reform affects only younger military retirees. Right now any person who has served 20 years can retire regardless of age. That means a serviceman who enlists at 18 becomes eligible for retirement at 38." The Consolidated Appropriations Act amended the BBA to exempt disability retirees and their survivors from the COLA reduction. The COLA reduction is wrong because it targets a single group, military retirees, to help address the budget problems of the Federal Government as a whole. While reforms have been made to the Federal civilian pension, those changes applied prospectively to new employees. By contrast, this change to military pensions will apply upon implementation to current retirees, their families, and survivors.

Reforming Military Retirement

Reforming Military Retirement PDF Author: Beth J. Asch
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780833093400
Category : COMPUTERS
Languages : en
Pages : 105

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Book Description
"This report documents RAND analytical support to the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission (MCRMC). Using the Dynamic Retention Model, the report evaluates MCRMC's proposed military compensation and retirement plan reforms, by service, for officers and enlisted personnel in both the active and reserve components. In addition to generating cost savings, the proposed reforms sustain the current force size and shape"--Publisher's description.

Assessing Compensation Reform: Research in Support of the 10th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation

Assessing Compensation Reform: Research in Support of the 10th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Military retirement reform has been a central element of the policy debate regarding why and how to restructure the system for compensating members of the U.S. armed forces. Concerns about the compensation system, and the retirement system specifically, include the rising cost of military compensation and the need for greater efficiency in the provision of compensation, the greater need for flexibility to reshape the force as missions change in ways that challenge the current compensation system, and issues related to the equity of military retirement benefits of active versus reserve personnel, junior versus senior personnel, and military personnel versus their civilian counterparts. Active members can claim retirement benefits before reservists can; junior members who leave prior to completing 20 years of service do not qualify for retirement benefits, unlike their more senior counterparts; and the 20-year vesting rule is outside the civilian vesting norm of 5-7 years of service, under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The 10th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC), building on previous studies and commission reports, including the 2006 report of the Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation (DoD, 2006) and the 2000 report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Human Resources Strategy, has proposed an alternative military retirement system that addresses concerns regarding the current system while still sustaining the force. The defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) plans are the foundation of the alternative system considered in this analysis. RAND was asked to develop a modeling capability to assess compensation alternatives, such as the QRMC proposal, in terms of their effects on military retention, retirement behavior, vesting, cost, reserve participation, and the value of compensation from the perspective of the member leaving active duty. This monograph presents the results of that study.

The 20-Year Military Retirement System Needs Reform

The 20-Year Military Retirement System Needs Reform PDF Author: United States Accounting Office (GAO)
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781721934942
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description
The 20-Year Military Retirement System Needs Reform

A Framework for Restructuring the Military Retirement System

A Framework for Restructuring the Military Retirement System PDF Author: Roy A. Wallace
Publisher: Army War College Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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Book Description
The current military retirement system has been integral to sustaining the All Volunteer Force (AVF). Mounting federal budget challenges, however, have raised concern that the program may become fiscally unsustainable. While several restructuring proposals have emerged, none have considered the implications of these changes to the broader issue of manning an AVF. Changes to the existing system could create military personnel shortfalls, adversely affect servicemember and retiree well-being, and reduce public confidence in the Armed Forces. With the right analytical framework in place, however, a more holistic system restructuring is possible, one that avoids these negative effects while significantly reducing costs. A comprehensive framework is provided, as well as a proposal that stands to benefit both servicemembers in terms of value and the military in terms of overall cost savings.

Reserve Retirement Reform

Reserve Retirement Reform PDF Author: Beth J. Asch
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833036939
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 95

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Book Description
Four bills are pending in Congress to reduce the age at which reservists can begin to receive retirement benefits. This report provides input regarding these proposals and the broader issues surrounding reserve retirement reform. Although it is important to recognize that deferring some portion of compensation can be cost-effective, the results argue in favor of providing compensation on a current rather than a deferred basis.