Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think I recall it was 85%ile for officers vs 90%ile for enlisted (still too high for either when one looks at the historical compensation for the armed forces).
I support a family of three on the same gross* as an E4 with four years in. I have old cars, and do not have cable TV or the latest smart phone, but I do travel a lot, and eat well, and have plenty of money set aside for fun.
*(We make quite a bit more than an E4 over four, but contribute a great deal to retirement). I don't get the heavy tax breaks that an E4 over 4 gets (BAH and BAS is not counted against the EITC), nor am I eligible for food stamps or WIC so in effect the E4 over 4 has a higher income than my family (again, this is due to my families choice to save).
Yet we say our junior enlisted are underpaid.
I don't think money is an issue, I think financial responsibility is.
Actually I went back and compared my income before taking out retirement and that of an E4 over 4 with the same size family. After BAS, clothing, and tax credits are factored in an E4 nets $2,783 a month (not including housing). This is actually just $150 a month less than my family nets before taking out $833/month for retirement (we are a military family as well, so no Housing was factored in for us either).
So here my family nets post retirement contribution much less than an E4 over 4 who doesn't contribute to retirement, yet we say the E4 is underpaid?
2,783 a month in disposable income? And under paid?
A generous budget
2783
-500 food
-400 entertainment
-300 allowances
-300 car
-200 insurance
-200 gas
-200 baby costs
-160 smart phones
-100 cable
-------------------------
423 a month in savings
I think he's doing well.
Spot on.
I always laugh to myself when I hear or see someone post on facebook about how an e-4 is underpaid (my cousin is an e-4).
I left active duty as a Junior Officer and joined the reserves. On active, I was making about 85 to 90k a year. I applied for a GS position that had over a 1000 applicants. I was hired based on the fact that I had the education requirements and work experience.
My first year out I was a GS-7 because you can't come in at a higher grade without specific experience. My take home pay after retirement (401k, and GS workers have to fund their pension), taxes, and medical for my entire family was less than a married e-4 gets in housing allowance per month where I live (San Diego).
Teeing up what could be a politically explosive fight before the midterm elections in November, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday will recommend billions of dollars in annual budget cuts that would reduce housing allowances and other benefits, increase health-care premiums, and limit pay raises, CBS News confirms.
Companies like Apple are able to use loopholes to legally keep their money in other countries, and they don’t have to pay U.S. taxes on that money unless it comes back home.
They are the real welfare queens.
I doubt veterans folks will get much sympathy from the civilian world because the massive cut has been seen everywhere in the private sectors already. Many civilians don't believe military should be immune from budget cutting. And they (civilians) have every single right feeling so.
To me, this is not an issue of military vs civilians, Democrats vs Republicans. Although I'm not supporting entertainers who are tax cheats... it's amazing to me that they government will go after them tooth and nail... but won't do anything about these businesses.
Likely the congress isn't going along with pay and benefit cuts but they do need cuts otherwise. Since they are basically professional army not drafted for short tme :I do not favor cuts in those areas. I can see cut government workers in many other areas more than defense personnell in pay.
Hagel is a Repubican, and he is cutting spending like Republicans have been calling for. These cuts will not leave the nation defenseless.
NOPE ..... Hagel is an Obama Team Member and has been since 2008 when Obama was first running for office. Republicans are not known for cutting Military readiness OR Veterans benefits.
Politico has the answer to why the Obama Team has proposed this 'budget' that they know will anger most everyone except their Low Information Base.
This is all about Sequestration - Hagel is trying to threaten to shut down all this stuff, making sure that the pain is spread far and wide to get Sequestration removed. All should remember that the Sequester was an Obama idea that was used to get his Debt Ceiling raised until after the 2011 election and it was put in place until 2020 - the Murray/Ryan Budget (which House, Senate & President signed on to) suspended the Sequester for Fiscal years 2014, 2015 for the Defense Department & some social programs like Head Start, but it added 2 more years on to the 2020 - bringing up to 2022.
If Congress doesn’t like it, Hagel said, it should try sequestration. If lawmakers permit the automatic spending restrictions to fall back into place as they would in 2016 under current law, the Air Force would also lose all of its KC-10 Extender tankers, its Block 40-model Global Hawk drones and slow purchases of its F-35A. The Navy would lose more ships – including an aircraft carrier — and delay its F-35C. And so on.
Hagel said he appreciates the difficulty involved with the reductions the Pentagon is proposing in its fiscal 2015 submission, but he said the U.S. could continue to be the leading world power and “defeat any aggressor.â€
Not so if Congress permits sequestration to return, however.
This is going to backfire on them Big Time. The Obama Team will end up with everyone mad at them before it's all said and done. They just never seem to learn.
Uh, it's not CHUCK HAGEL recommending the cuts, it's BARACK OBAMA. The lengths to which people go to defend this failed President never cease to amaze.
Liberals need to find the money from somewhere to pay for their continuing social engineering. Which in the past has shown to be a continual failure but learning from history is not something they wish to do.
Yeah? Well our Defense Department has been a failure too. What war did we last win?
The Pentagon appears to have left mostly intact major programs such as the F-35 Lightning II, the Air Force’s new bomber and KC-46A Pegasus tanker. It plans to spend about $1 billion on new jet engine research. Hagel said he wants the Navy to begin developing a new frigate to take the place of the Littoral Combat Ships cut from the latter portion of the program.
The Pentagon appears to have left mostly intact major programs such as the F-35 Lightning II, the Air Force’s new bomber and KC-46A Pegasus tanker. It plans to spend about $1 billion on new jet engine research. Hagel said he wants the Navy to begin developing a new frigate to take the place of the Littoral Combat Ships cut from the latter portion of the program.
All these benefit cut goes back to the military, they just buy new toys.
They're not new "toys".
You don't realize that acquisition programs are integral to readiness and just as important in order for the US to maintain their dominant presence.
What does keeping around a bunch of well paid troops do if they don't have the equipment to train on for the next war?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
