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Well, Military.com reports that junior enlisted are underpaid (no surprise) and Congress wants to give them a major sized pay increase – but the Senate and White House are doing some fiscal pearl-clutching over the cost of said raise and oppose it.<\/p>\n
Under both the House and Senate plans, all service members are on track to get at least a 4.5% raise next year, which matches what the Biden administration requested and what a federal formula for annual military pay raises says troops are entitled to.<\/p>\n
But in the House, after months of study of military quality-of-life issues by a bipartisan panel of lawmakers, members are pushing for a 15% boost for junior enlisted troops on top of the across-the-board raise, for a total 19.5% increase.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Think the biggest boost I ever saw was 10% back in 1977 – but things were a bit less inflationary then (at least until Carter’s impact was felt.)<\/p>\n
With the Senate’s more modest proposal and the White House’s objection to any targeted boost to junior enlisted pay before an administration study on military compensation is finished, the fate of the House plan to give E-1s through E-4s a 19.5% pay hike next year is growing shaky.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Elizabeth “Let ‘Em Eat Cake” Warren blames the Republicans:<\/p>\n
“We’ve done everything we can to put as much money into pay raises for our active-duty military and particularly for the E-1s through E-3s, the lowest paid,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who chairs the Armed Services Committee’s personnel subpanel, told reporters Wednesday after her subcommittee approved its portion of the NDAA. “But it’s still not enough. I’d like to see more money for our active-duty military and for our civilian workforce that supports our defense effort. But right now, we have to stay under those budget caps that were negotiated in 2023 that the Republicans insisted on.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
She says they put some hard work in on it.<\/p>\n
Asked how senators arrived at 5.5%, Warren said, “We squeezed as many dollars from every place else in the DoD budget that we possibly could.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
How selfless of them. I don’t suppose anyone asked about the TRILLIONS the administration has given away.<\/p>\n
The White House also cited cost concerns with the House’s proposal. A Congressional Budget Office analysis released Monday estimated the increase in pay for junior enlisted troops would cost $24.4 billion from 2025 to 2029.<\/p>\n