Pay, pay raises, pay allowances, pay charts - Air Force Times

1.4 percent raise would be smallest since 1962

There is no better sign of the ailing U.S. economy and the squeeze on federal spending than the 1.4 percent military pay raise for 2011 being proposed by the Obama administration.

It’s the smallest requested raise since 1993, when President Clinton unsuccessfully proposed a one-year government pay freeze. And if it is approved — and there are strong indications Congress could go along — it would be the smallest military raise since 1962.

PROPOSED 2011 PAY RAISE

• Basic pay

• Extended basic pay

Steve Strobridge of the Military Officers Association of America, a longtime advocate for bigger military raises, said that with all the wartime stress still being placed on the force, some troops might consider a 1.4 percent raise “a little insulting.”

He noted that for 11 years, military pay raises have been half a percentage point higher than average private-sector pay hikes under a bipartisan congressional initiative to close a perceived “pay gap” that peaked at 13.5 percent in 1999.

“We do not need to be finding reasons to scrimp on pay right now,” Strobridge said.

The Defense Department has argued for years that the pay gap — measured by comparing increases in military basic pay and private-sector wages since 1981 — no longer exists after years of robust pay raises and improvements in tax-free housing and food allowances.

But some lawmakers side with Strobridge’s argument.

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., a key player when it comes to military benefits, introduced a bill Jan. 12 that would give troops a slightly higher 1.9 percent raise next year, continuing the 11-year effort to close the perceived gap between average military and civilian pay, which Strobridge and others say is now down to about 2.4 percent.

Wilson is the senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee’s personnel panel, where military pay legislation originates.

Historically small

Even a 1.9 percent raise would be historically small. The next-smallest increase in the all-volunteer era that began in 1973 was a 2 percent hike in 1988, a time when Congress and the Reagan administration were capping military pay to help fund other defense programs.

Rep. Glenn Nye, D-Va., a member of the House Armed Services and Veterans’ Affairs committees, said he favors reining in government spending but thinks small military raises would be a mistake.

“We must not balance the budget on the backs of our military personnel,” he said in a letter to House Armed Services Committee leaders. “There are many areas where we need to cut federal spending … but the compensation paid to our troops is not one of them.”

Although the proposed 2011 pay raise is small, the budget plan is expected to include money for an average 4.2 percent increase in basic allowance for housing, $50.6 billion in advance funding for veterans health care programs for 2012 as part of a new funding law, and a 5.8 percent increase in military health care funding.

For whatever solace it might give, the proposed 1.4 percent raise would match average private-sector wage growth last year, keeping President Obama’s 2008 campaign pledge to keep military pay competitive with the private sector.

A 1.4 percent raise would be just enough to keep pace with the rising costs of goods and services, according to a Jan. 27 long-range federal budget outlook from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that projects a 1.6 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index this year.

That forecast is slightly good news for military retirees, who got no cost-of-living adjustment in retired pay for 2010 because the CPI actually declined during the economic crunch.

Traditionally, consumer prices rise about 3 percent a year, but the economic forecast prepared for Congress predicts very slow growth. It projects a 1.1 percent increase in the CPI in 2011, and average increases of 1.2 percent a year from 2012 through 2014 and an average yearly increase of 1.9 percent from 2015 through 2020.

Unemployment, a factor in military pay raises because it determines how hard the services must compete with the private sector for manpower, is expected to climb in 2010, but the forecast predicts slow improvement in the job market from 2011 through 2015.

The key point of the long-range budget report was not about consumer prices or the job market, but rather the U.S. budget deficit and what to do about it — a discussion that could determine the size of future pay raises and future defense budgets.

With the national debt standing at about $12 trillion and expected to grow by another $1.3 trillion this year, Obama has proposed to freeze most federal spending other than the defense budget, and is working with Congress on creating a bipartisan commission to look for ways to cut federal benefits such as Social Security, Medicare and other retirement programs.

Obama said in his Jan. 27 State of the Union address that the government needs to tighten its belt at a time when many Americans are being forced to make do with less.

“Like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don’t,” Obama said.

He also threatened to veto unnecessary spending.

“Debt is the threat,” agreed Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee and a supporter of Obama’s proposal to create a budget commission.

“If we continue to spend and run deficits as we have and as are projected, our nation will not be able to maintain its standard of living,” Gregg said.