Understanding Military Pay Raises and Benefits for 2005
By SGT Michael Volkin
This article will
outline a few of the most popular changes that will occur on
January 1st, 2005 with regard to your military pay and benefits.
On August 5th,
2004 the Defense Appropriations Act of 2005 signed into law
a 3.5 percent across the board pay raise for military personnel.
Don't worry: even though military budgets run on a fiscal
calendar (from 1 October to 30 September), the pay changes
will take effect on January 1st, 2005. Rather than posting
the pay charts in this article, they can easily be found
here.
Great! A pay raise,
but that's not all. The active duty personnel who live off
base will also see a 6.2% increase in their basic allowance
for housing (BAH) over the 2004 rates. This increase will
also take effect on January 1st, 2005.
Combat Pay (a.k.a
hostile fire pay) will retain its current level at $225 per
month. This was actually a temporary raise (up from $150 per
month) that Congress passed in 2002. It was scheduled to expire
in January 2005. However, the expiration was removed and $225
per month is now a permanent level for combat pay. The same
situation occurred with the family separation allowance. The
temporary level of $250 per month (up from $100 per month)
was set to expire the first of the year. This expiration has
been removed and the $250 per month is now a permanent level.
Those military
personnel that speak a language that is critical (other than
English) can receive a foreign language bonus. This bonus
was previously $100 per month, but now, the military is willing
to pay a maximum amount of $1,000 per month for enlisted members
and $6,000 per year for Reservists. Therefore, if we ever
go to war with Fiji, those military personnel who speak Hindustani
will be laughing all the way to the bank. Keep in mind though,
I did say those were "maximum" amounts, and each
branch of the military can define what a "critical"
language may be.
Starting January
1, 2005, the maximum re-enlistment bonus will increased from
$10,000 to $15,000. The services will also be able to award
this bonus amount in a lump sum should they choose to do so.
As for enlistment bonuses for reservists, those maximum amounts
have increased as well from $8,000 to $10,000.
Numerous other
changes that I have not mentioned will also take effect on
January 1st, 2005. These changes include increases to reserve
education benefits and reserve medical care to name a couple.
SGT
Michael Volkin is the author of The Ultimate Basic Training
Guidebook, available in both paperback and e-book format at
www.ultimatebasictrainingguidebook.com.
