Military News, News From Iraq & Afghanistan - Military Times

House panel keeps promise on bigger pay raise

A House subcommittee carried through Thursday with a promise of providing a bigger military pay raise to continue closing the gap that grew in the 1990s between military and civilian wages.

The panel also approved the addition of 30,000 soldiers to the Army’s active-duty rolls; ordered a test program that would offer jobs to military spouses through internships; and called for a Pentagon study that could lead to increases in the basic allowance for housing for some service members.

The 3.4 percent raise, which would take effect Jan. 1 in basic pay and drill pay, was approved by the House Armed Services Committee’s military personnel panel. If it becomes final, and there is every indication that it will, this would mark the 11th consecutive year of military raises that are slightly larger than average private-sector wage hikes, part of a long-running effort to continue closing the so-called “pay gap” that grew when Congress capped raises in the 1990s.

Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., who chairs the personnel panel, said the 3.4 percent raise is slightly larger than the 2.9 percent increase proposed by the Obama administration and would reduce the gap between average military and civilian pay to 2.4 percent next year. At its peak in 1999, the pay gap was 13.5 percent.

Davis and Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, the panel’s ranking Republican, both endorsed the 3.4 percent raise earlier this year immediately after the Obama White House proposed a 2010 raise that would match, but not exceed, private-sector salary growth.

The increase in Army active-duty strength would occur in 2011. The 30,000 figure matches estimates of the number of soldiers who are considered not available for deployment, which Davis said increases the burden on other troops. The increase would occur only if the Defense Department included money for the extra troops — about $60,000 per soldier in direct compensation and another $80,000 per soldier in other related expenses — in the 2011 budget request that will be submitted to Congress next year.

The decisions made by Davis’ subcommittee are part of the larger 2010 defense authorization bill that will be taken up Tuesday by the full House Armed Services Committee.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to begin writing its version of the annual defense policy bill the week of June 22, and also is expected to approve a 3.4 percent military pay raise and an increase in the number of active-duty soldiers.

It is unclear, however, whether the Senate committee also is talking about a delaying the Army manpower increase for a year. Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s military personnel panel have talked of providing more immediate relief for the Army, which might mean an increase in 2010 rather than 2011. But senators also have been talking about an increase of 20,000 soldiers, one-third fewer than the level approved by the House panel.