RSSPublished: May 20, 2002
To make our comparisons between military and civilian pay, we started by asking service members what they do, how much they are paid and where they are assigned.
We then called chambers of commerce, businesses and institutions in the same region – the same city or county, if possible – to obtain salary information for civilian workers with similar jobs and years of experience.
For a military air traffic controller, we called a local airport to gauge salary levels for that job near the location where the member is stationed. For a finance specialist, we called local companies to find out what their payroll supervisors earn.
In many cases, we talked to personnel officials and wage-and-benefits specialists. Sometimes we talked to civilians with identical jobs. Most civilian employers and workers were responsive, courteous and curious about military salaries.
After determining local salaries, we did a similar exercise, using additional data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other resources, many of them Web-based – such as Vetjobs.com – to get a national average for each service member’s equivalent civilian profession.
Making such comparisons is an inexact science that leaves plenty of room for debate. Many military jobs match up readily with civilian counterparts – law enforcement, aviation, health care – but others, particularly in the combat-arms fields, don’t translate as easily.
In most cases, we compared combat-arms troops to corporate managers with similar levels of responsibility who would supervise roughly the same number of people – a Marine expeditionary unit commander with the CEO of a medium-sized business, for example.
Then we did calculations on the military compensation for each service member. In many cases, the military pay figures in our comparisons are higher than what the individuals see on their pay stubs.
We started with basic pay. Then, to ensure consistency and put a price on the value of government housing, we assumed all service members were receiving Basic Allowance for Housing at 2002 rates, even if they lived in on-base housing.
Next, we used standard 2002 rates for regular Basic Allowance for Subsistence – $1,996.44 a year for commissioned and warrant officers, $2,899.20 for enlisted personnel.
We also included the continental Unites States cost-of-living adjustment, if applicable; and overseas COLA for those based in Hawaii and Alaska; special pays, such as hazardous duty or flight pay; and re-enlistment and continuation bonuses, prorated annually. For example, if a member got a $15,000 re-up bonus for three years, we added $5,000 to his annual military pay.
Finally, because a large portion of military pay consists of tax-free military allowances, housing and food, our military pay figures include the average value of the military tax advantage as calculated by the Pentagon.
Troops see this advantage in the form of higher take-home pay.
Contributors to this report: Military Times staffers Karen Jowers, Vince Crawley, Deborah Funk, Laura Bailey, Bryant Jordan, C. Mark Brinkley, Christian Lowe, Gordon Lubold, Diane Tsimekles, Seena Simon, David Castellon, Bruce Rolfsen, William H. McMichael, Christopher Munsey, David Brown, John Burlage, David Craig and Chuck Vinch. Free-lance writer Tranette Ledford.