Is not paying rent, food, utilities, etc., a benefit received while on active duty (in addition to your pay)?

I've seen much complaining about the quality of the benefit given. Regardless of your opinion of the chow, while yes is bland. It is still a benefit in every sense of the word, find one civilian job that gives both for free.

It is a benefit. Free room and board is a huge benefit that a lot of Soldiers don't take advantage of in its entirety. Most of the chow halls today are pretty damned good. They have a host of different things to eat at any given meal. The barracks in most places are decent now. Yes, you have to have a roommate. Boo-frickity-hoo. When I was young I lived with roommates to make ends meet. Some people don't have to. I did. There are a lot of things that civilians get that we don't either...like their full rights under the constitution. We don't and that's often overlooked.

Of course they are benefits. By definition any indirect and non- cash compensation by your employer is a benefit. Benefits can be given and taken away at any time. Those benefits vary from civilian employer to employer, and from industry to industry (like health care, life insurance, paid vacation, amount of sick leave, retirement pension and so on). For a military to suggest that free room and board, BAH, and subsistence allowance are not benefits is probably coming from the over entitled generation. And they are probably young - in their first job. I'm going to boldly say that they have not truly had to live on their own and experience what a paycheck covers. They have not had to experience being selective in their job applications because one employer offered better health benefits, etc. or no benefits at all. They have not experienced the changes that COBRA brought or life before Affordable Healthcare Act. The changes in IRS rules that allowed the proliferation of flexible spending accounts and such. They have not had to purchase additional life insurance because the average $50 dollars per pay for a mere 50,000 dollars of term life insurance from the employer just doesn't do as much as $400,000 offered by the military for a lot less monthly co-pay from their military pay check. And I could go on.....

There are some benefits that are mandated by law (such as social security, unemployment compensation, and workers compensation. So, again, any of the above benefits can be taken away at any time by the employer. Even military benefits can be taken away by congress, as my many many many emails and MOAA, and AUSA and such keep me informed about. There is a constant threat to our benefits being reduced or taken away all together.

One of the biggest shocks for transitioning military is that their buying power radically changes once they take off the uniform and become a civilian. It does not shift in a bad or good way, it just takes about 6-12 months for it to complete the shift to reality. All of those extras are things that you would pay for out of your own pocket in the civilian world. While that is just common sense, you have probably become mentally accustomed to not paying for those things. Unemployment is higher among young veterans (less than age 30) for 12-24 months after leaving service because there is a whole lot of adjusting to do -- and some of that is figuring out how to pay for life with a base paycheck that includes no benefits other than health insurance, which you are often asked to help pay for. GOOD NEWS: Most people figure it out and veteran unemployment on the whole is lower than that of the general population.

When we are talking about living in the barracks specifically. BAH for an E4 in Camp Pendleton without dependents is $1638. A one bedroom apartment in Ocean Side will run around $1200 to $1800 a month. So the BAH a SM does not receive for living in the barracks is to pay for Utilities and rent for a Studio apartment with a roommate, shared head, and shared Laundry facility. Yes not having to pay rent is a benefit but how much of a benefit is it for our service members in the barracks. Who have to put up with random working parties, weekly room inspections, and duty. When we talk about minimum wage we are talking about entry level positions our junior enlisted.

Yes it is an added benefit.

One of the Australians I worked with in Baghdad was shocked when he fond out we could choose to live off post, and get PAID to do it. They get quarters, their government contracts for the quarters. If they want to buy/rent a house, they get no additional income for not living in government contracted housing.

Interesting question. If you were to pay a Pvt. $15 per hr, but take away everything including health & dental then it would be worse. How would you figure in what the right compensation would be? Blackwater was getting upwards to $120K per year. You don't join the military to get rich, you join to serve your country.

Ok, just looking at 15 bucks an hour, for a 40 hour week is 600 bucks, or 2400 a month, that's almost 30K a year. I've been out/retired for so long I have no idea what base pay is now, say for a senior E6. My retirement check is about 1400 a month. When I was on active duty, because I didn't live in the barracks at some stations, I had to pay for meals at the chow hall. Yeah, I got a small stipend for rent, groceries etc, but it barely covered it at times.

I do NOT get free rent! I get BAH and then it is ALL taken by on-post housing! I signed a lease with Balfour Beatty and if I don't get my BAH, for whatever reason, I still owe them that rent! It's NOT free rent! Also, I'm deployed to Korea right now, so they confiscated my BAS and have me a meal card. This is NO WHERE nearly as good as it sounds. I'm not allowed to take any food out of the DFAC, often work until after the DFAC is closed at night, or through the lunch DFAC hours. For the $350 (approx) a month that they take away, I could buy my own food and cool in the barracks for almost two months! This Korea tour is choosing my family money because we normally use that BAS for groceries. (Yes, I know: BAS is for the Soldier, not the family)
Also, there no more "free utilities" in housing. It's prorated, based on average usage, but if you go over the average, you pay cash!
Two of my kids have Autism and receive SSI for disability and they said that my kids don't receive as much because we get FREE RENT, which is absolutely false!