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

While deployed we still have bills. Its not like they disappear along with our families. I still have utilities car payments and a mortgage rather I am deployed or not just like most people I know.

Yes, but they have a choice of where they want to eat, where they want to live. As a military member if you don't like where you are, you can't just pack up and move somewhere else. You have to wait until your tour is over and hope you can transfer somewhere else, that is if the needs of the Military don't keep you at your current duty station or another one in the same area. Or you can talk about overtime, put some of these people on a ship for 6 months straight and only pay them the time they work and see how they like it. In the military, yes you get time off, but you can be called in at anytime for duty. I can only speak for my experiences in the Navy, but when I was out at sea, I worked 7 days a week and normally between 12 and 16 hours a day. Even in port I still worked at least 8 hours a day plus Duty days (normal work day plus at least one 4 hour watch and working parties as needed), most of the ships I was on were 3 section duty (every 3rd day was 24 hours on the ship). Let's throw in that a married E-5 and below qualify for food stamps based on their pay.

You do actually pay for those things. You even pay for uniforms. The cost is deducted from your pay. When you live off base the estimated costs is added back to your pay. Same for uniform allowance.

I think there needs to be more of a balance in the pay system we have the politicians that make a ton of money and for life as well. We get enough money for the average of the area and the thing is all the companies that rent to us know the cap so its always maxed out. Especially over seas. Im in Okinawa right now and chose to stay on base because of this. Bottom line the structure within the military is nothing compared to the civ side however I believe enlisted should make alot more than we do.

It's part of the TOTAL COMPENSATION PACKAGE as opposed to a "benefit."

It is disingenuous to take "basic military pay" and divide it by 52 weeks and 40 hours a week and come up with an hourly rate, as EVERY military member by definition makes a "living wage."

The "Living Wage" (Battle of the Lexicon, thank you Maj Richard "Ernie" Rowlette) aka "Minimum Wage" what is being argued about.

Military Members are Trained Professionals, and are COMPENSATED as such.

Those who work in Minimum Wage Employment are paid at the UNSKILLED LABOR RATE.

That is the difference. They are utterly different, and those who try to compare them are trying to compare figurative apples to mongooses.

When I first enlisted in the Army, my base pay was $307.00 a month before taxes. You had to be married to get BAH and BAS. To get Post Housing, you had to be an E-4 with over two years of service on a six year enlistment! If you didn't want to live in the barracks, it was on your dime!

You do have a chowhall, but have to eat what is served each day, each meal. So many grab food and meals outside of the chowhall on their own dime. Those allowed to live off base get comrats that suppiment what they may have to pay in the local economy. BAH is also provided to suppiment the cost of renting in the local economy. That said, they can't change jobs or location like a civilian can if they can't afford it, want a new job or new location. They don't get any overtime pay, have to put up with situations that no civilian could even think of, go to the field, on deployments, onto ships, into combat zones...and are forced to live without their families a great deal of the time; both current family and they parenst and siblings, unlike most civilians stay close to where they were born and get to come home to the spouse and kids every night and eat supper together, go to dances, sporting events, graduations, et cetera. Oh, and then their is the job equivalence comparison. What is a welder in the Marine Corps getting paid...even say with comrats and BAH, compared to that Union Welder and all their benefits and retirement plan. No one in the military asks a customer if they want fries with that, and oh, then jacks that up.

That's a loaded question and you might think easy to answer, but it's not. First, free housing. In most military locations it is a dorm like situation. You share a room with someone else. At the time I served you had to be an E-4 with 2 years service to move out of the barracks. You give up privacy and have to share a bathroom, they are usually not very spacious. Second ,Free utilities. Because in most cases if you are not an E-4 with 2 years service you required to live in the barracks, so yes the utilities are free with the exception as I understand, if the soldier wants cable or phone service, they pay for it themselves. In large part medical has become out sourced. Most services do provide a lot of the basic medical care but in the instances of married personnel they usually have to use a civilian Dr.. The system is designed to pay for these benefits because military members do not receive a large pay-check. The benefits our military receive are constantly being cut or reduced by our President or Congress because they feel that the benefits that come with serving in the service should match what civilians receive but at the same time require us to place our lives on the line. Every benefit the military receives is earned.

Try doing that on an E-1, E-2, E-3 or even E-4 money. When I lived in Hawaii (after my military time) I can't tell you how many times you would see these young troops with family scratching their asses just to get food on the table WITH BAS/BAQ. I worked for an overnight package delivery company and I could tell you the date without looking at a calendar. Many of these kids were lined up to get the package with a check from mom and dad to buy food to get by until payday. You may not think it a benefit but it definitely is a benefit.

It would be if it didn't automatically come out of our pay and the chow halls were actually open maybe?