Hint
Know Your Pay
Do you know, in addition to advancement and promotion, what factors might influence your pay?
Whether you're active duty or reserve, a military career can be a challenge and an adventure, and like any other job it comes with a salary, benefits, incentives and bonuses, not to mention automatic annual pay raises.
Annual military pay raises are linked to the increase in civilian wages. Current laws governing annual pay raises guarantee that military pay will be at least one-half percent above civilian average pay increases, as measured by the Employment Cost Index (ECI), through 2006. Military pay raises may exceed these automatic levels if authorized and funded by Congress.
The January 1, 2006 military pay raise for all grades is 3.1%.
Variations:
There are several factors that effect your pay besides getting advanced or promoted.
These include:
- An Annual Pay Raise (based in large part on the ECI mentioned above).
- Longevity raises virtually every 2 years (based on the number years in service).
- Basic Allowance for Housing Increases BAH (based on location).
- Basic Allowance for Subsistence BAS Increase.
- Cost of Living Allowance COLA Increase (based on location).
- And Special Pay(s) (based on occupations: Combat, Flight, Hazardous Duty).
In addition if you are transferring you can bet that your BAH and COLA will probably change. Check out the links below to see how much you will be getting paid at your next unit.
