Posted on Apr 3, 2014
When did you agree to sacrifice your pay?
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<h1 class="omc-post-heading-standard" style="margin-top: 17px; margin-bottom: 13px; font-size: 3em; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif;">General Tells Congress Troops Are Willing To Sacrifice Pay</h1><div>http://americanmilitarynews.com/2014/03/general-tells-congress-troops-willing-sacrifice-pay/<br></div><div class="pta-link-card"><div class="pta-link-card-picture"><img src="http://americanmilitarynews.com/wp-content/uploads/Generals-2-249x166.jpeg"></div><div class="pta-link-card-content"><div class="pta-link-card-title"><a target="_blank" href="http://americanmilitarynews.com/2014/03/general-tells-congress-troops-willing-sacrifice-pay/">General Tells Congress Troops Are Willing To Sacrifice Pay</a></div><div class="pta-link-card-description">In testimony to Congress last week, military leaders told Congress that military personnel are understanding as to why they must take pay cuts. The officials </div></div><div style="clear:both"></div><div class="pta-box-hide"><i class="icon-remove"></i></div></div>
Military Pay
Congress
Downsizing
Sacrifice
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 14
It seems like an end around to protect pet projects they all want to work on after retirement. Soldiers know their pay isn't great and with budget cuts it is always possible to lose out but when these Generals go before Congress and say soldiers would rather take pay cuts than lose projects like the F-35 or having another carrier we may or may not need is ridiculous and it is obviously done without actually talking to any servicemembers.
Minimum wage is going up in some states, purchase power for Service Members is going down. Generals make so much we won't even discuss about them having to trade in the Disney vacation for the Six Flag's package.<div>I'm out without a retirement package, so this showboating from Generals (of who there are way to many) no longer affects me. There seriously needs to be some realignment of priorities in the "House", whether that's military in-house or the Congressional, doesn't matter, current political and military elitism, power and prestige without responsibility or consequences is getting old.</div>
Back when the country was truly in a recession, bordering on depression, I felt a bit guilty about getting ANY pay increases when I knew friends and family who were being laid off. Now, I only speak for myself, of course, but I would not be at all hurt if I did not receive a pay raise this year. I'd even be willing to go out on a limb and say that the majority of officers would vote - given the choice - to forgo their own pay increase if it meant that the junior enlisted Soldiers could maintain their pay raises at the usual level.
SFC (Join to see)
On a more on topic note, I won't be hurt if we do not get a pay
increase. It will be difficult as purchasing power is about to change, but I
will not get upset. What I do have a problem with is the waste. The DoD is an
expert on waste and worthless projects. I am not refering to the F-35. What I am refering to is how much money we waste on contracts for items like manditory online training, cutting the lawn on post, schools that could be better done VTC, paying Soldiers to not do their primary job, etc. We should audit ourselves before cutting pay. But, I don't
believe for a minute that we will lose actual pay. This is all just political maneuvering.
Sir, I have a hard time equating the last/current recession with a
depression. In the Great Depression people lined up for bread, in the
last/current recession people lined up for iPhones.
On a more on topic note, I won't be hurt if we do not get a pay
increase. It will be difficult as purchasing power is about to change, but I
will not get upset. What I do have a problem with is the waste. The DoD is an
expert on waste and worthless projects. I am not refering to the F-35. What I am refering to is how much money we waste on contracts for items like manditory online training, cutting the lawn on post, schools that could be better done VTC, paying Soldiers to not do their primary job, etc. We should audit ourselves before cutting pay. But, I don't
believe for a minute that we will lose actual pay. This is all just political maneuvering.
MAJ Bryan Zeski
I agree that we won't lose any pay - it just won't be as big of an increase. Even if we don't get ANY increase, I'd be fine with that. And I agree we need to make cuts, but we need to look at where those cuts should be made. On one hand you mention that we are "paying Soldiers to not do their primary job," and on the other that we are wasting money on contracts for "cutting the lawn." There are no MOS's (that I know of) whose primary job is to cut lawns or landscaping. I agree that there are some contractors who are making money hand over fist for minimal work (and because I'm Signal, I'm looking at the NEC personnel and IT support contractors). But, for the rudimentary jobs - landscaping and gate guards for starters - I suspect we pay contractors less, in the long run, than we do the Soldiers who receive a fair wage, plus benefits that are better than many established packages in the civilian world.
We definitely need to audit ourselves - and I think we need to start in the IT fields where we pay above market price for computers, data storage and everything else simply because we made some bad contracting deals a decade ago.
I'm sure if some are so offended by this that they decide its time to put their weapon down, someone else will pick them up.
MAJ (Join to see)
I think we, as leaders, need to plan on what to do if this does cause hardships to the troops in our command. You are right saying it won't affect me as much,. So it puts individuals like me on a good spot to help. Be that help in the form of food shelves, or even filling up a joes tank for the week. We cannot change what congress does, but we can keep ourselves afloat.
SFC Derrick Hardison
Very good point Sir. I know that even though my service has come to an end, I will always speak out and do what I can to help my fellow Soldiers and I will continue to stay abreast of the current situations that affect our service members. Thanks for your service as well
Did you actually read the article? Nobody is going to lower our pay! We simply could see a less of a yearly raise (average 1% vs. 5%) than we have seen in the past.
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SFC Gilley,
"...an average 5 percent reduction in housing allowances, and higher health care fees for some retirees..." Plus, if you stationed CONUS your basic pay won't be able to keep up with inflation rates. Average inflation rate in 2013 was 1.5%, where pay increase rate was only 1%.
SFC (Join to see)
SFC Pate,
SDAP? I have seen traffic circulating that is pulling that forward to May. Not sure if it's rumor mill, but it believe I heard a guy in office today saying he received paperwork. Things that make you go hmmmm.
CW2 Jonathan Kantor
I wasn't responding to the article, more to the 'suggestion' of giving up our pay. We haven't had a decent raise in years so I'm pretty used to it by now. Frankly, we are compensated very well given the majority of us don't have any higher education. That reminds me, don't just encourage your troops to go to school, help them do it! My guys had no idea what an AARTS transcript was (I think they call it something else now, but its still the same thing).
I won't sacrifice a penny of my pay until they cut billions of dollars on weapon systems procurement that the military not only doesn't need, but doesn't ask for, and often says they don't need. Congress is great about getting DoD projects funded so their constituents get contracts and employment without regard to what is actually needed! When they fix that, and it's well over a trillions over the past few years, then, and only then will I agree to sacrifice some of my compensation for the greater good.<br>
He should be courtmartialed. How dare he speak for any of us. Why don't Congress ask us?
SFC Derrick Hardison
exactly! These Generals make $10,000 a month or more in base pay and they stand before congress and tell them with a straight face that our troops will sacrifice pay and benefits for equipment? That is so wrong on so many levels. I feel moves like these are strategies for political careers after the military for people like that. There are so many programs the military spends millions on every year that never end up being approved. why dont they tske more time to analyze the true need for some of these things before dumping so much money into a program that will never be? That would save the military so much money. Quit wasting millions on uniform research and use the damn MultiCam that won all the tests during the Army's search for camo a few years back. They alresdy give it to deploying troops, why not issue it to all Soldiers and quit wasting money on more research? And how dare Congress even consider cutting military pay? These people make hundreds of thousands of dollars to sit in a room and make a few decisions but want to cut the pay of a service member who is barely scraping by. Then they always vote to give themselves pretty decent raises. The government needs to reel these guys back in. Congress is the biggest racket going. Where else on earth can you get hired to do a job and even vote on your own pay raise?
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