by Rebecca Currier

Created on: December 16, 2009   Last Updated: December 17, 2009

Military pay is confusing, strictly governed, and way below average.  An active duty members LES ( Leave and Earnings Statement, i.e. pay stub).  It tells everything you need to know about their pay and how its is calculated, but only if you understand how to read it.  However, if you look at the jobs the military members do, and the hours they work, the vast majority are sadly underpaid.

The top section of a military LES contains the members personal information.  The members name, rank and social security number is there.  How long they have been in is also there, as well as how long they have held their current rank.  It also identifies where they are stationed and the alpha-numeric identifier for their job.

The middle section is divided into three areas.  The first contains all pay the member is entitled pay.  This is usually base pay, the pay the member is entitled to for their rank and time in service; their housing allowance, the amount the military says it would cost them to house the member, based on rank, on whether or not the member has dependents, and where the member is stationed; and food allowance, a set monthly allowance determined by the military as how much it costs for the military to feed the member. 

It can also contain bonuses, and rebates from FICA and Medicare.  The second area contains the amount of taxes, Medicare and social security subtracted from the base pay of the member.  It is also where wage garnishments or over pay remittance is listed.  The third area contains any allotments the member has set up, such as auto loans, or savings deposits.  

The third section of the LES is the news and explanations section.  It contains pay news that the services want to disseminate.  It also contains the banking information for the account where the member has their direct deposit going. 

If there are garnishment being taken or debts arranged for payment through the finance office, the amount owed, how much has been taken and the amount taken  each month is listed here.

It is the amount of base pay , the actual pay a member receives for the job they do, that I believe is way too low.  For instance, I am an IT professional, with college degrees.  As an E-5 with 10 years in, I would be paid 2800 a month, 33000 a year,  for my services. I would be on call 24/7. 

My average work day would be 10 hours a day with an hour for lunch, five days a week.  I would deploy, I would work any extra time they wanted me to, weekends and holidays, with no recompense.  In the civilian world, my hours would be normal, work a day hours, averaging 9 hours a day with an hour for lunch. 

If I went over 40 hours of work, or had to work off schedule, I would receive extra pay.  And with ten years of experience and my degrees, I would be making close to 90000 a year.  

There is a lot of information contained in a military LES.  Everything you would like to know about the pays they receive and how the final dollar amount for the pay is arrived at is contained in the slip of paper. 

However, it does not cover the discrepancy between military and civilian pay for the same jobs or how much military members give up to hold their job, and protect US interests.

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