How much money does it take to pay each service member in the US military per pay period?

2LT(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 11:05:39 -0400

Just had a shower thought - For every pay period on the 1st and 15th, how much does it cost the government to pay every RSP/DEP recruit, enlisted, warrant, and commissioned officer their base pay on one pay period? Not including BAH, Sustenance, clothing allowance, etc.

Response by SGM Jeff Mccloud made Oct 25 at 2025 12:20 PM

SGM Jeff Mccloud — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 12:20:46 -0400

In FY24, total military payroll was about $14,7B per month. But that does include BAS, BAH, and special and incentive pays and bonuses.
1.33M service members were active duty, including AGRs for the Guard and Reserve, and about 800K in the Guard either on a drill status or on orders of some kind.

Response by COL Randall Cudworth made Oct 25 at 2025 4:41 PM

COL Randall Cudworth — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 16:41:20 -0400

2LT(P) Private RallyPoint Member, if you REALLY want to get a breakdown, you can get all the raw info from the Department's Comptroller*. FY26's base budget request has the actual expenditures for FY24 in them (there are over 60 different 'personnel' budget sub activities that are used).

However, a quick and dirty extraction of the info for how much the Department spent for all Services in FY2024 was:
• Basic Pay: $67.63B (~$5.64B/month)
• BAS: $5.26B (~$0.44B/month)
• BAH: $25.73B (~$2.14B/month)

To get a more accurate figure, you'd have to add in everything else that goes along with base pay ... SS/Medicare tax the employer pays ($5.16B), TSP matching contributions ($1.29B), etc.

As SGM Jeff Mccloud stated, the entire budget expenditures were about $14.7B per month, but it also includes things you probably would never think to account for if you didn't have the documents in front of you.
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* https://comptroller.war.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/FY2026/m1_display.xlsx

m1_display.xlsx

Response by LTC Matthew Schlosser made Oct 26 at 2025 10:47 PM

LTC Matthew Schlosser — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 22:47:27 -0400

*subsistence, not sustenance.
I am reminded of an accounting trick the Department once played that saved the taxpayers an entire month's pay for the entire force. Once upon a time, we were paid once a month on the last day of the month. So, once, they moved a paycheck from 30 September in one FY to 1 October (the next day) in the next FY. One day made no real difference to the troops, but the government only paid 11 paychecks, not 12, that year. Genius, but something you can only do once.

Response by CMDCM Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 11 at 2025 5:25 AM

CMDCM Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 05:25:33 -0500

You’d basically have to factor in every pay grade from E-1 all the way up to O-10, multiply by headcount in each rank, and then apply time in service brackets. And even then, the number shifts constantly because people are enlisting, ETSing, promoting, separating, etc. The DoD publishes the annual military payroll in the budget docs, though, and if you break it down by 24 pay periods, you're easily talking billions per pay period. Base pay alone for the active component is already enormous before even touching BAH or benefits.

Response by SGT Lorenzo Nieto made Nov 11 at 2025 6:56 AM

SGT Lorenzo Nieto — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 06:56:17 -0500

How about we cut the math and just say a lot.

Response by SGT Lorenzo Nieto made Nov 30 at 2025 7:21 AM

SGT Lorenzo Nieto — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 07:21:13 -0500

A lot