Pay: Basic pay - Pay, pay raises, pay allowances, pay charts - Air Force 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 2010, all service members received a pay raise of 3.4 percent effective Jan. 1. Under that raise, basic pay starts at $1,338.60 a month for enlisted people with less than four months of service. Pay theoretically tops out at $18,675.30 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 2010, that cap limits maximum monthly military pay to $14,975.10.

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.

In February, President Obama unveiled his initial defense budget proposal, which includes a proposed 1.4 percent raise, effective Jan. 1, 2011. That would match the annual change in the ECI, but if approved, it would break a string of 11 annual military raises that have slightly exceeded average private-sector wage growth. It also would be the smallest annual military raise in almost 50 years, a reflection of the economic recession’s dampening effect on inflation.

The 11 years of above-average raises have whittled a gap that some compensation analysts say exists between military and private-sector pay. This gap grew as high as 13.5 percent in 1999, but has slowly diminished since. The 3.4 percent pay rise that took effect Jan. 1, 2010, trimmed the gap to about 2.4 percent.

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