Proposed Military Pay Chart Change

Back in March, I said that I didn't like the proposal being floated by the Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation to defer retirement payments until age 60 for future military retirees. (Soldier's Mom also mentioned it over at the MilBlog Ring HQ.) The committee's complete report came out earlier this month (you can download all 182 pages of the report here) and they've got a new bombshell -- changing the military pay chart from one that pays you based on "time in service" to one that uses "time in grade". It doesn't seem like that big a deal for officers (who will normally get promoted within 1 year, plus or minus, of the "standard" promotion flow point) but it could be a really big change for enlisted men and women. Overall, the proposal is revenue-neutral for all the services, but each service's total payroll would change, ranging from +0.78% for the Army, to -0.96% for the Air Force.

The big problem I could see if for servicemen (especially Sailors) in specialities that don't offer a very good promotion percentage to E-7. I've seen Sailors spend 8 years or more as an E-6 before making Chief; looking at the example chart in the report, this Sailor would actually get less money for the first 2 years he was an E-7 than he made as an E-6. While I'm sure they would put in a business rule that would get around that problem, this serviceman probably wouldn't make any more money for the first three years.

Despite this potential problem, my initial reaction is that this proposal is worth considering. The committee, chaired by retired ADM Donald Pilling, had some other recommendations that are discussed here.