Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week delivered his "last major policy speech" and, in it, suggested that politicians show courage in the fiscal crisis by making the military compensation system more efficient. Gates has the department preparing such a set of recommendations to be part of a $400 billion defense savings package over the next 12 years.
Every witness before a Senate subcommittee hearing last week on military compensation - all experts on service pay and benefits - called directly or indirectly for Congress to end its 12-year run of voting for annual military pay raises that exceed wage growth in the private sector. No witness suggested that future raises each January shouldn't match annual wage gains for private sector workers as measured by the government Employment Cost Index (ECI).
Should military pilots who have been reassigned from cockpits to ground-based computer consoles to fly remotely-piloted vehicles continue to draw the same flight pay as pilots who still fly jets and helicopters? Should reserve component personnel on lengthy overseas assignments in locales like Germany continue to draw the same overseas cost-of-living allowances as active duty counterparts?
A new Department of Defense study of military compensation finds no pay gap exists today between service members and civilian peers. But the study, conducted over the last two years, advises Defense leaders to adopt a new tool for comparing military and private sector compensation so that service members learn to appreciate the full value of their more favorable package of pay, benefits, allowances and tax breaks.
For the past dozen years, the annual battle over the size of the next federal pay raise has had all the drama of a fixed pillow fight between two creaky gladiators. But things change. President Obama started out using the same script (with updated numbers) as former President Bill Clinton and former President George W. Bush. His budget calls for a 2 percent pay increase next January for nonpostal federal workers and a 2.9 percent increase in 2010 for uniformed military personnel. Congress rarely accepted the low-ball figure first proposed by Mr. Clinton and, later, by Mr. Bush.
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