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let's see,...6 months a year i worked 18 hour work days with only one day off in each of the 4 to 6 ports. at home port, 8 hour work days if lucky. if we had duty, we put in an additional 4 hours weekdays and 12 hours weekends. even when at homeport, we still went out to sea for qualifications or testing repairs. i worked with electric generators and engines, all steam turbines using +600 psi at +800 degrees superheated steam which killed 10 guys on my first ship (USS Iwo Jima LPH-2). we slept on a 2" thick piece of sponge laid across a metal plate in what was called a coffin rack. 200 men slept in one room on my first ship and we had to share 10 showers and 10 toilets and one TV with 2 channels. base housing (Norfolk) was worse than mobile homes. visited some and rathered staying on the ship. shore duty is fine for those lucky enough to get it, most Navy sailors arent so lucky. then again, if i wanted an easy military service I would have joined the Air Force to live in an apartment (their version of enlisted quarters) and mix drinks at the enlisted club or work the cash register at the restaurant/cafeteria.
There are very few ( none ? ) jobs in the United States that you must sign a binding contract obligating you to work for them for years and enforceable by law.
Imagine starting at a factory and to get hired you had to commit to 6 years and if that factory moved to Mexico or China you had to go or face legal punishment.
Nearly every civilian job you are free to leave at any time. ( a 2 week notice is appreciated )
There are very few ( none ? ) jobs in the United States that you must sign a binding contract obligating you to work for them for years and enforceable by law.
Try that in the military.
That's my point. It's binding so they usually pay you better than the civilian world (in most instances). How many 22 year olds with no college education can pull 60k with free health care for your entire family?
The work conditions suck at times. But, let's not pretend that you'll spend your entire career getting a bad deal every time you're up for orders.
I have friends who have retired that told me they've already accepted the fact that they'll never match their total take home pay when compared to what they got in the military.
I just don't agree when I see articles on military blogs or facebook acting like service members are a step away from living in poverty.
No other job gives a high school graduate as much compensation as the military does.
There is not a civilian job around that gives full medical, 30 days vacation, housing, college money, food money, retirement, path of advancement, etc to someone with no skills and just a high school diploma (and in some cases, just a GED).
My opinion is the military is not underpaid, I never felt it while I was in, heck, that was the reason I joined was to get a better job than the one I had. If civilian jobs were so great, half the people would not even join. Fact is for many people, the military is the best thing going for them, the civilian sector will not compensate even close to what many people get in the military.
After I got out, it took me years to even reach my quality of life level I had when I got out. The largest impact is medical and housing costs. Military pay is not bad at all when you realize they pay for nearly everything else on top of your salary. I did not pay for food, housing and medical; my largest expenses in the civilian world.
Only the ones who are irresponsible with their money.
sorry, i was responsible with my money and felt i was under paid based upon the hours worked and the technical aspect of our job on the ship. every enlisted sailor on ships had at least two jobs, at least one within their rating and one as firefighter. whether war or peace, we deployed 6 months at a time. even including benefits, our pay still fell short considering hours and technical nature of the job.
underpaid....greatly. at leas Enlisted are. I was making below minimum wage for hours worked by a mile.
At 10 years in as an E-6 I turned down a 6 year re-up with a 65k tax free bonus to get out. Not a day goes by that I don't wish I would have gotten out sooner. Was asked to stay in and ship out as a chief to a boat, turned that down also.
When I got out, I tripled my income. Military is great for short term opportunity, probably better than just going to college if you play your cards right. The only people that should consider a long term military career are people that dig it and love the job, or people that can't hack it in the real world.
#1 disappointment is that military pay is so low that some members have to receive food stamps to survive.
#2 disappointment is that this administration would propose replacing the present COLA formula with a "chained CPI" (Consumer Price Index) that is designed to provide smaller raises.
sorry, i was responsible with my money and felt i was under paid based upon the hours worked and the technical aspect of our job on the ship. every enlisted sailor on ships had at least two jobs, at least one within their rating and one as firefighter. whether war or peace, we deployed 6 months at a time. even including benefits, our pay still fell short considering hours and technical nature of the job.
I had a technical and physically demanding job too. The problem was, I wouldn't stand a chance getting similar comp on the civilian side at that point in my life. Now, post college, I probably could.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Themanwithnoname
The military still hasn't reached modern times and has a pay differential as if the officers are still the only ones who know how to read!
Officer pay is higher due to the aspect of the job. They have much more responsibility and have a pretty high barrier to entry (look at the stats to get into the academy/ROTC/OCS). Plus, no Officer or elected official would vote to cut O pay.
The hours worked is one thing. However, It evens out in the end in my opinion. On shore duty, you usually don't work longer than 40 hours per week (unless you're the CO or more senior, at which point you're making enough to justify it). My last command let some Officers out of work for a day to attend grad school classes once a week.
Another discussion point. My sister in law got a job post college that paid more than what a junior officer made in strategy consulting. Guess how many hours she usually worked? 60 plus hours a week. Most jobs that pay a lot require a lot of work.
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