Black_Bullitt
03-06-2009, 02:26 PM
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/03/miliytary_payraise_030209w/
But there’s good news for troops who will get a pay raise next year, along with improved benefits — President Barack Obama is proposing a 2.9 percent military pay raise effective Jan. 1, 2010, a figure that would match, but not exceed, average private-sector wage growth.In every year of this decade so far, the military pay raise has been at least half of a percentage point above average private-sector wage growth, a sustained effort by Congress to close a purported gap between military and civilian pay that some say has existed since 1982.The minimum raise is set in law; each year’s increase must at least match the private-sector wage growth as measured by the Labor Department’s Employment Cost Index. Obama’s proposal to match, but not exceed, the ECI is the right call this year, said former defense budget analyst Michael O’Hanlon of The Brookings Institution.
“I don’t think there’s any need for a big new personnel benefit at this point, even though our troops are performing so heroically,” O’Hanlon said. “We’ve taken pretty good care of them, to the extent that money can address these kinds of issues. There’s plenty of room for debate about whether we should be doing more in other ways by, for example, increasing the size of the force. But I think financially, we take pretty good care of people.”
:headshake: :headshake:
But there’s good news for troops who will get a pay raise next year, along with improved benefits — President Barack Obama is proposing a 2.9 percent military pay raise effective Jan. 1, 2010, a figure that would match, but not exceed, average private-sector wage growth.In every year of this decade so far, the military pay raise has been at least half of a percentage point above average private-sector wage growth, a sustained effort by Congress to close a purported gap between military and civilian pay that some say has existed since 1982.The minimum raise is set in law; each year’s increase must at least match the private-sector wage growth as measured by the Labor Department’s Employment Cost Index. Obama’s proposal to match, but not exceed, the ECI is the right call this year, said former defense budget analyst Michael O’Hanlon of The Brookings Institution.
“I don’t think there’s any need for a big new personnel benefit at this point, even though our troops are performing so heroically,” O’Hanlon said. “We’ve taken pretty good care of them, to the extent that money can address these kinds of issues. There’s plenty of room for debate about whether we should be doing more in other ways by, for example, increasing the size of the force. But I think financially, we take pretty good care of people.”
:headshake: :headshake: