Can I decline being promoted to Corporal?

You'd be a great big fool for turning down a promotion. You showed the higher-ups that you have the mental ability to be promoted, which means you can be a leader or men & women. You just want the pay as a SPC!? Why do that? You want to be a follower for the rest of your ARMY career? You think very little of yourself that way. Be an adult, a leader makes good and bad decisions all the time. If you feel you can't do either, your career is on the down and out for sure.

You're a joke!

I actually side with this guy, whoever he is. The military is constantly trying to squeeze as much as they can out of individuals so we always get the worse end of the deal. What do we get for our hard work and sacrifices, including sacrificing family time, pay, and vacations? A pension after 20 years and VA benefits that you have to fight tooth and nail for after you get out? No, it's time that the military stop trying to take advantage of it's people otherwise there will be retention issues as we have seen over the past few years.

That would not be a wise move. Your leaders see potential in you or they would have passed you by.

SGT (Join to see) ... the Army is looking to add more Corporals to its ranks. It is making promotion to Corporal mandatory: https://www.armytimes.com/2021/06/07/all-soldiers-must-now-serve-as-corporals-before-promotion-to-sergeant/

I was a l/cpl non-promotable in a Ssgt billet. You do the job you're assigned. If you are already selected and put in the billet it sounds like someone thinks highly of you. Or bail, and turning down a promotion is a career ender.

Let's break this down a bit. You went to and passed the E-5/SGT promotion board. Congratulations young man. Big hurdle right there in starting your career. Since you are a CPL, how is it that you sign your name in with a profile SGT Josh H? Looking at the date on this post I am guessing that you got promoted to SGT. Next question is WHY it just showed up in my notices?

Never pass up extra anything to make you a step above your peers. Go to the NCO of the Month Boards. BDE, Post. Win a few of those and find an NCO who is an Audie Murphy member and pick their brain. Tell your PSG, 1SG you want to go to that board and ask for help for study material. Then go. IF you don't succeed the 1st time, go again. Ask for jump school. Air Assault school. Become what we call HIGH SPPEED. Know your job and the next position up. You are the trainer.

Suck it up buttercup, NCO's jobs aren't a check the block to do list with a criteria for extra pay incentives. Get your head out of that mode of thinking. None of us have gotten "extra" pay for the extra responsibilities we took on. It's a learning tool. IF you can't handle that, then your wasting tax payers money and your NCOs and Soldiers time.

I Know In The USCG You Can Decline Your Promotion, Yet, By Denying Your Advancement to the Next Pay Grade , You Will Be Ineligible for Advancement for at Least 3 Years. I do not Recommend this course of action.
I Have Taken Many Jobs that were one pay grade higher than my Rank, I did not complain when I Received My Orders, I just accepted my Orders Them.

Remember it is your job to Teach Leadership, by example, to teach Every Military Member How to do there Job, How to be a better Corporal than you were a better SSG, a better leader, than you are today, to make your service better than it was when you Join. so you know you have left your Friends in Good Hands when you decide to get out, or retire.

Remember you are Training Your Replacements, this why it is so important to have high standards and Pride in service and Military Uniform Appearance, it Goes Back to the Old Adage Aim Small Miss Small, or you can Use the Law Enforcement Adage of the Broken windows Theory.

This goes back to where some of your Senior Leadership Personal are saying they would Pull there Recommendation for your Advancement, if they were sitting on your Board, you are Most Likely asking Why?
the answer is simple, By The Question You Asked It shows You are not ready, you are to Immature.

a more Secure Man, a More Mature Leader would have Jumped all over this advancement without Question . so to Answer your Question, By Asking This Question You are Most Likely Not Ready for Advancement up to Corporal.

The rank is the reward. Just frock it until it you meet the rest of the requirement. You know how they say dress for the job you want not the job you have. Also, you will have more time in rank which may beneficial down the road.