Obama to request 1.4% pay raise for 2011 - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Obama to request 1.4% pay raise for 2011

President Obama will seek a 1.4 percent military pay raise for 2011 as part of his defense budget request that will be unveiled Feb. 1, according to a point paper issued Tuesday by the White House.

If approved by Congress, it would be the smallest annual military pay raise since the birth of the all-volunteer force in 1973, a reflection of the lingering recession’s dampening effect on wage growth and living costs. The next-smallest raise in the volunteer era was a 2 percent increase in 1988.

In contrast, the pay raise for this year, which took effect Jan. 1, was a robust 3.4 percent.

The proposed 2011 raise would match the projected increase in the Employment Cost Index, a Labor Department measurement of private-sector wage growth. For 11 consecutive years, including this year, Congress set annual military raises half a percentage point above the increase in the ECI in order to whittle a perceived gap between average military and private-sector pay that supposedly has existed since 1982 and peaked in 1999.

The point paper, issued in advance of a speech on military family initiatives by first lady Michelle Obama to an association of military spouses, also envisions an average 4.2 percent increase in Basic Allowance for Housing rates next year.

In other budget highlights noted in the point paper, Obama will seek:

• $30.9 billion for the Defense Department’s medical program, an increase of 5.8 percent above 2010 levels. About $669 million would be devoted to treatment for traumatic brain injury and other mental health issues, while $250 million would go to fund continued research on mental health issues among service members.

• $1.36 billion to expand the availability of military child care services, an increase of $87 million over 2010 funding.

• $1.9 billion for expanded counseling and assistance services, to include financial counseling and transition and relocation assistance, an increase of $37 million over 2010.

• $84 million to fund programs designed to expand career and education opportunities for military spouses through tuition assistance and internship programs, an increase of $12 million over 2010.

For the full details on Obama’s plans for 2011 — including a complete pay chart that shows how the proposed raise would affect you — see Monday’s issue of Air Force Times, Army Times, Marine Corps Times or Navy Times.