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On average, bonuses up $5,000 from 2009

Selective retention bonuses are bouncing back in 2010.

The average bonus is $31,052, nearly $5,000 more than last year’s $26,300.

Payments are increasing for 35 Air Force Specialty Codes, and the service is adding 10 AFSCs to its SRB list. The total number of career fields in the bonus bonanza is 91.

And getting the extra cash is simple if you’re one of 16,350 enlisted airmen who qualify: Just re-enlist for another four to six years, said Lt. Col. Suzanne Wheeler, deputy chief of the Air Staff’s Force Management Division.

Not all the news is good for airmen looking to stay in — bonuses went down for 32 AFSCs, and two AFSCs, Aero Medical Services and Medical Materiel, fell off the SRB list.

With the recession dragging on and the re-enlistment rate already running at 70 percent, it would stand to reason that bonuses would be drying up, not going up.

But the Air Force still has lots of spots it needs to fill, created by the decision to raise the size of the force by 10,000 airmen and the growth of the cyber and unmanned aerial vehicle missions.

“We had an increased need,” Wheeler said. “We adjusted accordingly.”

The service figures on spending about $141 million on bonuses in the coming fiscal year, about $5 million more than it did in 2009 and $95 million more than in 2008 when the drawdown was in full swing.

Airmen can sign up now, Wheeler said. If you’re re-enlisting for the first time, you can apply a year before your contract ends and get your first bonus payment within a few weeks of approval. If you’re on your second, third, fourth or more time, you can’t sign up until you’re within 90 days of your re-enlistment date.

If the bonus is decreasing in the 2010 plan, you have until Dec. 4 to sign up and still receive the 2009 bonus, Wheeler said.

And if you’re in a war zone or expect to head out soon, you should sign up while you’re deployed because your bonus — all of it — is tax free.

The payments range from about $8,800 for senior airmen re-enlisting for four years in AFSCs with low bonuses to $90,000 for a handful of noncommissioned officers with 18 to 20 years of service in four undermanned career fields — Contracting; Explosive Ordnance Disposal; Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape; and Tactical Air Control Party.

The size of the bonus is based on several factors, including your monthly basic pay, how long you have served, the number of years for which you re-enlist and the bonus multiplier that reflects how much extra money the Air Force is ready to pay to keep you in.

Once your bonus is approved, you get 50 percent of the money in a lump sum payment. The rest of the money arrives in equal annual payments until the enlistment contract expires.

Here are sample bonuses:

* A senior airman with four years of service working as a combat arms security forces member or an aerospace maintenance specialist qualifies for a $26,399 bonus if he signs up for another four years.

* A loadmaster with eight years and the rank of staff sergeant qualifies for $74,569 if he re-ups for six years.

* A contracting specialist with the rank of master sergeant and 12 years of service gets the $90,000 maximum if he agrees to stay another four years.

Recession, retention

The new bonus program arrived at the same time the Air Force is beating its overall enlisted retention and re-enlistment goals. There had been speculation that high civilian unemployment rates and good retention numbers would push the Air Force to trim its SRB offers.

During fiscal 2009, 35,598 airmen re-enlisted — 100 percent of the service’s goal, Air Force numbers show. The 2010 goal is 36,182.

There continue to be career fields and year groups that lag behind, though.

Airmen with 10 years or more of service re-enlisted at a rate of 98 percent, leaving the service short 135 noncommissioned officers.

Of airmen reaching the end of the first enlistment in fiscal 2009, 71 percent signed up to stay for another term.

And when airmen at the end of the second hitch had to decide, 70 percent signed up for a third enlistment, a stay that takes airmen up to or past the 12-year point.

The re-enlistment rate for airmen deciding to take fourth or higher enlistments was 97 percent.

The lowest initial re-enlistment rate was for air traffic controllers; only 44 percent of the 182 controllers eligible for a second enlistment stayed in. At the decision point for a third stay, 64 percent re-enlisted.

Other career fields with fewer than 60 percent taking second enlistments included boom operators, 52 percent; firefighters, 52 percent; signals intelligence, 53 percent; security forces, 56 percent; and crypto-linguists, 56 percent.

For third enlistments, career fields with lagging retention include cardio-pulmonary, 27 percent; boom operators, 42 percent; contracting, 44 percent; crypto-linguists, 44 percent; security forces, 45 percent; signals intelligence, 53 percent; explosive ordnance disposal, 53 percent; communications, 54 percent; and air battle managers, 55 percent.

More info

* FY10 SRB chart

Air Force Specialty Codes added

1A8X2, Zones A, B, C

1N1X1B, Zones A, B, C

1U0X1, Zones A, B, C

2A5X2, Zone A

2T3X2A, Zone A

2T3X2C, Zone A

2W2X1, Zone A

3E0X1, Zone A

3E0X2, Zone A

4Y0X1H, Zone C

3D1X5, Zone A*

3D0X2, Zone A*

3D0X3, Zone A*

Air Force Specialty Codes no longer eligible

4A1X1

4N0X1

2E0X1, Zone A **

3C0X1, Zone A **

3C2X1, Zone A, B, C **

-- * New cyber AFSC

-- ** AFSC no longer exists, replaced by new cyber AFSC