Schwartz supports 1.4% raise in 2011 - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Schwartz supports 1.4% raise in 2011

The Air Force chief of staff stands behind a 1.4 percent pay raise for airmen next year — but says anything more and it will get tougher for the service to do its job.

The service’s budget is so stretched that a pay increase bigger than the one requested by President Obama “means we’ll do less of something else,” Gen. Norton Schwartz told government employees at an Oct. 6 meeting in Washington, D.C.

“If you’re in a situation where recruiting is satisfactory, our retention is better than expected, a basic business approach would be to look at compensation as a way to manage the cost of operation,” Schwartz said. “Clearly 1.4 percent is what we thought was adequate and appropriate under the circumstances, but we’ll see how the Congress [handles] that recommendation.”

In recent years, lawmakers have tacked larger pay increases on to the Pentagon’s budget request. Congress has not yet passed the 2011 defense budget.

Schwartz has stressed the need for fiscal discipline in recent public speeches. He foresees little or no increase in the Air Force’s $ 170 billion budget and has expressed concern about personnel costs, which include salary, benefits, retirement pay and health care.

His concerns are echoed by other service chiefs and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who in August ordered the shuttering of Joint Forces Command, the closing of two agencies, the elimination of 50 flag-officer billets and a reduction in the number of contractors. Gates has also hinted that changes to the military’s Tricare health care system could be looming.

Schwartz said plans for trimming the Air Force’s budget have not been approved and declined to go into details. But he said one area that will be targeted is the staff at headquarters units. He also said the Air Force is exploring reducing the number of civilian senior executive service positions.

He stressed any cuts wouldn’t harm the Air Force’s war-fighting capabilities and that its contribution to combatant commands wouldn’t diminish.

“In the business world, there are always considerations of the benefits and liabilities of consolidation and centralization of certain functions,” he said. “We too are looking at what functions we might centralize more and provide services in a more centralized fashion, which offers good promises of fewer resources and perhaps fewer people devoted to those undertakings.” Ë