Comparative Costs of Air Force Military and Civilians in Selected Science and Engineering Specialties
Abstract
In the face of accession and retention shortfalls, the Air Force recently initiated a critical skills retention bonus (CSRB) for officers in the science and engineering (S&E) workforce. The bonus will be awarded to members with 4-13 years of commissioned service, at the rate of $ 10K per year for those who agree to four-year obligations. The Air Force Materiel Command also has suggested legislation that would offer commissioned officers a proficiency pay incentive for holders of graduate degrees in S&E disciplines who work in S&E positions. Monthly proficiency pay incentives would range from $100-5300, depending on experience. The targets of these awards are five career fields (designated "core groups" by the Air Force): * Developmental Engineering (62F) * Scientific/Research (61S) * Acquisition Program Manager(63A) * Communications-Information Systems (33S) * Civil Engineer (32F). There are alternatives to using bonuses and proficiency pay to fill all the available military S&E billets. Among them: the Air Force could use DoD civilian employees or private sector civilians to perform some portion of the work requiring S&E skills. The objective of our work was to assess the use of Air Force military and civilian science and engineering personnel in RDT&F positions by comparing the costs of using Air Force officers receiving bonuses with the alternative of using civil servants. A secondary objective was to define alternatives for later consideration.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA439112
Entities
People
- Douglas Wink
- Glenn A. Gotz
- Karen W. Tyson
- Lyndon S. Anderson
Organizations
- Institute for Defense Analyses