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

Well, that depends, really. FIRST, do you get to USE those benefits? For example, if you don't go to the clinic, having that "insurance" for free health care is not useful. And, if you never get to use the chow hall because either its not open, your supervisor won't let you leave work to go there or he/she takes "first lunch" because rank hath its privileges and then drags ass so you don't have time to get there, or the chow hall is so far from your work/barracks that you can't get there because there's no transportation and you don't have a car... Well, not so useful, huh?

Also, remember that you signed what amounts to an indentured servitude contract... and that they OWE YOU in the respect of caring for your body and person, since they OWN you.

Yes it is a benefit, lf you feel it is such a sweet deal the recruitment offices are open for business if you can meet the physical standards, height / weight requirements. Good luck acquiring those benefits.

Its a tough call on this because we do get extra money for certain situations, but its not ever going to be comparable to civilian pay because there is no comparison.
In the military we are on call 24/7 during our enlistments, even on vacation we can be called back to duty, how many civilians, other than first responders can say the same?
We all know in the military we are always ready to deploy on short notice if something happens and we are needed, how many civilians have to leave their families for several months or longer on a routine basis, much less when an emergency pops up?
BAS is not enough to really survive for a month unless your eating Cup O Noodles or other junk foods.
BAH is nice, but again its usually enough to cover your rent and most of your utilities and that is dependent upon where you live.
Lots of civilian companies have free health / dental insurance for the employee and a fee for family members just like our TRICARE and Delta Dental are.
The plus and minus of our benefits don't make up for the lower base pay and laughable pay raises we get.

No it's not a benefit if you are single. If single you can live in the barracks for free. If you are married then you get a housing allowance however that money goes directly to housing. It's still military housing but it's paid for. It can be both on or off base depending on where you are stationed.

Being as I paid for rent, meals, and utilities while in the service...no it isn't. Is it offset at least a little? Yes. Calculating my hourly pay during a particularly busy deployment averaged a little under $2/hr. Burger flippers are barking up the wrong tree.

I think you're comparing apples and oranges really. That's my opinion. Rarely would I consider military bunks a home. That's like saying having a bunk while underway on a submarine is a bonus. It's not. The boat was designed around a crew for a reason, and that "coffin" as we called it was not designed for comfort, only necessities.

lol you do know active duty is considered 24/7/365 on call??? right??? lol Even with those benefit ... it still barely consider a nice paying job. unless you are E7 or above, but then you are already consider "managerial role" by then.

Sp4 Byron Skinner. Although food, lodging etc. are a convent the real issue here is that the military moved you from your home and like a civilian company has the responsibility to provide the necessities of life when you are away from home. Its called Per Diem. To those who live off base there is allowances to cover this which zeros out any monetary value living in a barracks might have. The emerging minimum wage of $15.00 an hour is certainly making the pay scale of the Jr. enlisted and officers look bad. When you throw in over time pay for anything over 8 hrs a day or 40 hr's. a week the shortcoming of military pay is more startling. To be competitive the military will have to double the pay for Enlisted and Jr. officers, In short the military is going to have to enter the 21st. Century. The military won't be able to attract the caliber of people it wants. The military is trying to recruit men/women with two years of post secondary education or more. These young people will easily be able to get jobs at $25,00 and hour. With a college degree the expected starting wage is twice the minimum wage. Starting teachers will be making $60,000 an year in California with overtime for sports supervision and off hours events.

In a way, yes. If you expect to take the same pay or an increase on the outside, you'll come up short because you're getting this portion of your pay tax-free. That's why they say in TAP in order to keep the same standard of living you'll need 25% more total compensation to offset the lack of tax-exempt income.

Definitely a benefit. Used to receive a form letter every year that would lay out all the compensation/benefits monetarily. Used to laugh at it with how much they said each of the benefits was worth, but was able to use it as documentation for applying for loans. Do you not get that any longer?