Committee advises pay changes
By Tom Philpott
To strengthen the link between pay and performance, the military should raise the pay of unmarried service members to the level of married members, says a panel completing a year-long pay study.
The Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation prepared a summary of recommendations for senior defense officials that includes a call to end a pay disparity that can be traced to World War I.
Chaired by retired Navy Adm. Donald L. Pilling, the committee is recommending many major changes to compensation. Its final report, to be released in April, will propose an overhaul of the military retirement system for future service members and new business-like incentives to reward performance and to lengthen service careers in high-demand specialties.
The goal is to give the services greater flexibility and more modern, cost-effective tools to shape the force. The changes, said Pilling in his briefings, should include a combination of reforms including:
Unequal pay between married and single members dates to World War I, when Congress passed a temporary measure to provide "commutation pay" to cover quarters, heat and light expenses for Army officers whose families could not be housed in government quarters.
In 1940 Congress allowed a higher allowance for off-base housing to enlisted members with dependents, though only the highest three pay grades qualified.
Over the years, the disparity grew. But it also fit with a view of the military as a calling, not a job, and as a paternalistic institution, not an employer in the marketplace. Pay overall wasn't great but the services promised to "take care of our own" either with housing for families or bigger allowances.
To sustain an all-volunteer force, however, pay must be competitive. Historical disparities, the committee suggests, are harder to defend. Giving 25 percent more in allowances to married members, on average, increasingly is a source of heartburn to single members with options elsewhere. No other major employer pays workers differently based on marital status.
The April report from outside experts won't be the final word. The findings will inform a more extensive pay study about to get under way, the 10th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation. The QRMC will be staffed by Defense Department and service pay experts and a final report will be sent to Congress.
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