Should the Increase in Military Pay Be Slowed?
Abstract
The Department of Defense (DoD) is seeking cost savings but wants to ensure that the nation s defense requirements continue to be met. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (OSD P&R) asked RAND to provide an assessment of whether the rate of increase in military pay should be slowed. While slowing the increase in pay could provide cost savings, it is important to consider whether doing so would adversely affect the department s ability to recruit an adequate number of high-quality personnel. This assessment assembles the latest available data on recruiting and retention for the active and reserve components, military pay relative to civilian pay, and current employment conditions in the civilian economy. These data are compared with guidelines that are frequently used in determining the annual adjustment in military pay: (1) recruit quality benchmarks (percentage of high school diploma graduates, percentage scoring in the upper half of the Armed Forces Qualification Test score distribution); (2) an index of civilian wage trends (the Employment Cost Index); and (3) civilian wage distributions for workers comparable in terms of age and education (for which the 70th percentile has been established as the benchmark). This document should be of interest to audiences concerned with national security and the federal deficit. The document s information is perhaps most relevant to the defense manpower policy community and officials charged with ensuring that the nation meets its defense manpower requirements yet does so cost-effectively. The research was sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Personnel Policy and conducted within the Forces and Resources Policy Center of the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Unified Combatant Commands, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA562994
Entities
People
- Beth J. Asch
- James R. Hosek
- Michael G. Mattock
Organizations
- RAND Corporation