Widespread Misconceptions about U.S. Military Salaries

November 29th, 2014

I've noticed that few people actually know how much money military members earn. Even among military members, there is a general lack of knowledge on the subject and a surprising amount of misinformation spread among the troops. While a quick Google search will indeed yield results, the numbers shown on most websites do not tell the whole story. Aside from being formatted in tables that are unintelligible to the average person, Basic Pay figures are not comprehensive. There are sizable monetary allowances not mentioned anywhere on many of the websites you'll find and significant tax breaks that need to be taken into account before arriving at the final equivalent civilian salary. Many people would be surprised by how high military salaries actually are.

I'll show you some examples of military salaries below, describe how I arrive at those numbers, and finally explain why I think overcoming these misconceptions could be a significant aid in attracting and retaining quality military members.