Got to love what our president is doing for the military that protects our rights and interests.
Obama to request 1.4% pay raise for 2011
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jan 31, 2010 8:38:13 EST
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.
Bush always low-balled the military pay raises too, but not this bad. I’d imagine Congress will do what they did during the Bush administration and pass a larger pay-raise. They have the real say inwhat the military gets paid.
I am of the opinion that every government worker and elected official should be under a Pay freeze right now. The Private sector is not givng out many raises so why should the government.
I do NOT apply this to the Military however. I am sure some people would bitch that it isn’t “fair”. But I don’t see them putting their ass on the line very day to protect mine.
I am of the opinion that every government worker and elected official should be under a Pay freeze right now.
Pay freeze or no pay raise? Two different things, there. If it’s the first one, thanks a lot, because I am currently working a part time, temporary gov’t job while I’m in school to pay the costs. I actually do help the public and I actually do my job, and I sure don’t get any thanks for it from higher up.
I’m cool with the no pay raise. It only benefits the politicians/high level government employees, and it’s insulting to see the gov’t giving itself a pay raise while everybody else is tightening their belts…
I’m not in the military, and I may be out of my lane, but…
isn’t inflation on average 3-4% a year?
I’m not to sure, but I know pay raises don’t help that much for those on the .mil pay scale or those that work at the lower levels of the government. The higher ups, especially politicians and such, get quite a bit more money. They only give a bit of a raise to the lower levels so the anger/rage gets spread out across the board.
I’m maxed out on E5 pay so the annual pay raise is the only way I get a raise. I think there needs to be al law setting in minimum pay raise the military can be given. Something to the tune of 2.5%
I have worked for city government public services jobs in the past and in bad times did not get an annual raise. It was either that or lay people off, which no one wants to see.
The jobs I have had got a 2.5% raise max, I saw it go lower, get split up with 1.5% for the first half and 1% added the second half of the year.
Someone posted this on my facebook wall:
Obama has proposed a 1.4% pay increase for active duty military in 2011. This is THE LOWEST SINCE 1973! Nice to know that during a time of rampant inflation, while war is fought in 2 theatres, our men and women in uniform …get A LOWER PAY INCREASE THAN WELFARE RECIPIENTS.
I like the way that’s put, Shotdown. I like that a lot. “A lower pay increase than welfare recipients”, really drives it home how little certain politicians hate the military.
Given the larger economic situation, I have no heartburn with this. We’re pretty well compensated these days, and while an annual raise is always welcome, we aren’t exactly in this line of work for the money. 1.4% is considerably more than a lot of American workers will get this year, and with some of the recent changes to the G.I Bill and other entitlements, I’m a lot more inclined to be counting my blessings right now than I am to be complaining about our President.
Definitely appreciate the sentiments of the patriots on this board, but those of you who are vets (who I daresay would represent a majority of our membership) would probably be astonished to see the difference between what we are paid today, and what you were paid back then. True, it is every Soldier’s God-given right to complain, but there are better things to complain about these days than the pay charts.
I know it sucks not getting the annual rise that you deserve, and everyone in the military deserves it, you do have to look at the disaster this country is in right now and to the future.
Remember your pay comes from tax dollars, and when as many people are unemployed as there are now the tax dollars are not there. Just think of what would happen if there was a law that the military got a standard % raise every year. There would be even more threads about base closings, the suppliers of those bases closing, military families out on the street, and the list can go on.
Oh but they got money for banks, for themselves, for stimulus bills left and right.
Military pay is a drop in the bucket of the total fed spending.
Democrats love to cut military spending as much as they think they can get away with it. They don’t have a problem increasing welfare/entitlement spending do they?
They sure don’t have a problem raising taxes and spending trillions on their health care.
