Military Compensation: Time for Reengineering
Abstract
Military officers are leaving the armed services at alarming rates. However, officers have always resigned from the services at high rates especially during drawdowns and periods of peace. The difference with today's departures is that officers deemed to be highly successful in the organization and destined for high level commands and general officer promotion are opting to leave the service. This paper will examine the history of compensation in the military services, relevant criticisms to the present system and conduct a limited study in order to determine whether the pay gap between military and civilian compensation has reached a critical threshold. Congress realized that the large pay raises of the early 1980s had restored some equity between military compensation and the civilian sector wages. However, by 1987 the gap between private sector and military salaries had widened to nearly 9.4%. A recent RAND Corporation Study showed a 20% pay gap for officers. Clearly a pay gap exists between military compensation and civilian wage salaries. The issue raised in this paper is that there continues to be discrepancies that are beginning to have negative impacts as greater numbers of quality military officers leave for higher compensation in the civilian sector.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 30, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA391816
Entities
People
- Michael Cardarelli
Organizations
- United States Army War College