Pay: Basic pay - Army Pay & Allowances, pay raises, pay allowances, pay charts - Army Times

Pay: Basic pay

Basic pay, which is taxable, makes up the largest portion of most service members’ paychecks.

Basic pay is determined by rank and length of service, and is set in law in a pay table. All service members get at least one raise each year that is approved by Congress. Service members also get automatic raises when they are promoted to a higher rank, as well as longevity raises for time in service within one rank. Longevity raises generally are given every two years.

In 2008, all service members received a pay raise of 3.5 percent effective Jan. 1, 2008. Under that raise, basic pay starts at $1,245.90 a month for enlisted people with less than four months of service. Pay theoretically tops out at $17,383.20 per month for four-star officers with 38 or more years of service. But by law, officer pay is limited to Level II of the federal Executive Schedule, which sets pay rates for various government officials. In 2008, that cap limits maximum monthly military pay to $14,349.90.

In early February, the Defense Department unveiled its budget request for fiscal 2009, which includes a proposed 3.4 percent raise effective Jan. 1, 2009.

Annual pay raises for all ranks, which apply to basic pay and drill pay, are designed to keep pace with overall wage growth in the private sector. By law, the minimum raise must match the annual change in the Employment Cost Index, a Labor Department measurement of private-sector wage growth. But Congress can, and frequently has, increased the size of the annual military pay raise.

For example, President Bush originally proposed an all-ranks pay raise of 3 percent for 2008, which would have matched the annual change in the ECI. But Congress chose to bump the raise to 3.5 percent in order to whittle a gap that some compensation analysts say exists between military and private-sector pay.

This gap grew in the 1980s and ’90s when military raises lagged private-sector wage increases. It rose as high as 13.5 percent in 1999, but robust pay raises since 2000 have cut it considerably. The 2008 pay raise trims the gap to about 3.4 percent.

The Bush administration’s proposed 3.4 percent pay raise for 2009 would again precisely match the change in the ECI.

For the current basic pay chart, visit http://www.militarytimes.com/money and click on “Pay Charts.”