Danger Pay Now Calculated By the Day

WASHINGTON -- Starting this month, the Defense Department will calculate imminent-danger pay by the day rather than the month, a cost-cutting move the department estimated last year could save $30 million annually.

Up to now, servicemembers received a full month’s imminent-danger pay -- $225 -- for spending even a single day in designated hazardous areas, which range from war zones such as Afghanistan to out-of-the-way spots like Montenegro.

But beginning Feb. 1, they’ll get the extra pay only for days they’re actually present in the danger zones. The prorated daily amount works out to $7.50.

“This is a more targeted way of handling that pay,” Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby said Thursday.

The exception is for troops exposed to hostile fire.

“If you take fire, you get the full $225,” regardless of time spent in the area, said DoD spokeswoman Eileen Lainez.

The change, signed into law by President Barrack Obama on Dec. 31 as part of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, should have little effect on troops on long-term deployments in hazardous areas. But it could reduce the paychecks of officers making short visits to designated locations or Sailors passing through them, Lainez said.

Pentagon officials said affected servicemembers should begin seeing the difference in their paychecks on Feb. 15.