Pay raise, boost in BAH lower than ’08

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For fiscal 2009, Defense officials have proposed significant increases in pay and housing for servicemembers, but not as much as they saw in 2008.


Pay raise, boost in BAH lower than ’08
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, February 6, 2008

WASHINGTON — The next year’s Defense budget proposal won’t pad servicemembers’ wallets by as much as the 2008 budget, but still contains significant increases in pay and housing.

For fiscal 2009, Defense officials have proposed a 3.4 percent pay increase for all military personnel, a 5 percent bump in the Basic Allowance for Housing and a 3.8 percent increase in the Basic Allowance for Subsistence — all decreases from fiscal 2008.

However, that’s just the initial proposal. Last year Defense officials recommended only a 3.0 percent pay raise, but Congress approved a 3.5 percent raise after months of debate.

If approved, the 3.4 percent raise in 2009 would mean about $75 more a month for an E-4 with six years service, or about $95 more for an E-5 with 10 years service. It would be the third-smallest military pay jump of the past 10 years, but would still be well above the 2.7 percent average pay increase troops saw in 2007.

Similarly, housing allowance rates have been averaging more than a 6 percent increase each year since 2005, leaving the 5 percent proposal for 2009 lagging behind recent trends.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52227