Military spouses looking to return to the workforce or launch a new career are invited to apply for the new Military Spouse Career Accelerator Program.   This program is part of the Taking Care of People directive from the Department of Defense. The program from the Spouse Education and Career Opportunities (SECO) section of Military One Source is a competitive multi-year program that provides spouses with paid 12-week fellowships at employers across various industries and locations. All fellowships are located within the continental United States.

The program will run for three years with rolling application acceptance dates. Not all applications will lead to fellowships, but they will lead to connections with a career coach to assist the applicant in getting ready for moving forward with a career of interest.

Eligibility:

-Career-ready spouses of members of the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force to include active, reserve, and National Guard components

-Fellowships are chosen based on previous work experience and the applicant’s previous education

How to Apply:

-Click the link here

-Answer the questions to ensure eligibility and then complete the application

-If not able to apply, you will be connected to an SECO career coach

How is a Fellowship Program chosen?

After application, the applicant’s location, education, and ability to commit are taken into account.

There are both in-person and remote fellowship opportunities.

If you have a specific question about the SECO Military Spouse Career Accelerator Program, email MSCAP@uschamber.com.

This program is separate from the Hiring Our Heroes program, which provides coaching and fellowships. If someone interested does not get into the SECO program, check out the Hiring Our Heroes program.

MyCAA

Another program available to military spouses desiring to further their education is the MyCAA program. Spouses of service members on active duty in pay grades E-1 to E-6, W-1 to W-2, and O-1 to O-3 who have successfully completed high school and have the ability to request tuition assistance while their military sponsor is on Title 10 military orders are eligible to participate in the MyCAA funding. The first 1,250 approved applicants in pay grades E-6 and O-3 will receive MyCAA financial assistance based on available funding. The MyCAA program provides up to $4,000 of tuition assistance to eligible military spouses. Read all about the MyCAA program and contact information for any questions.

Further resources for spouse employment can be found here.

Financial assistance programs are a saving grace for many looking to grow through higher education. Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) offers an Education Assistance Program that is open for applications from November 1, 2023 to March 1, 2024. Semifinalists will be notified in the spring if any further documentation is needed. Finalists are notified in early summer, and disbursements are sent out in August and December. The award is a $6,500 interest-free loan and a $500 grant. Students are only notified if they are selected; they will not be notified if they are not selected. The loans are renewable up to five years for full-time undergraduate studies.

To date, 17,000 students have received financial assistance totaling $160 million from MOAA.

General Eligibility Requirements

• 24 years of age or younger (your 24th birthday must be on or before March 1, 2024)
• If the parent is a military officer-
  • Parent must sign up for a paid MOAA membership if the child is selected to receive financial assistance and continue the membership until the child is no longer in the program. While an active membership is not required to submit the application, an active membership is required for the student to receive disbursements.
• If the parent is enlisted military personnel-
  • Parent must be on active duty, Reserve, National Guard, or retired. No membership is required. Children of former enlisted personnel are not eligible.
• High school or college GPA must be 3.0 or higher.
• Children attending U.S. military academies and academy prep schools are not eligible.

Application Requirements:

• High school GPA and relevant test scores
• Parent or guardian information including military affiliation and income
• Extracurricular Activities

Learn more about the funds from MOAA here and apply for the Educational Assistance Program here.

Finding childcare at your next duty station may be easier with the subletting program. One challenge to military spouse employment is childcare. Childcare on base is based on priority – dual military spouses first, then a military service member and a working spouse, then a military service member and a spouse in school, then a military service member and a spouse looking for employment. It is hard to find a job when you can’t interview. The subletting program may help those looking for employment or for spouses who need to coordinate their own medical appointments or need a break.

Air Force bases will roll out the new application, Kinderspot, in 2024 to allow for ease of subletting childcare spots at participating childcare development centers (CDCs). It is already active at 29 Air Force bases, including the new additions of Beale Air Force Base and Vandenberg Space Force Base, California; Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington; Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany; and Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri as of November 15^th. Beyond the 29 Air Force Bases, Kinderspot is utilized at the following Joint Bases: Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C.; Joint Base Andrews, Maryland; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia; and Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. The subletting of childcare spots will allow other families to “rent” the spots that the current CDC families don’t need, and if rented, will provide a credit to those families.

To sublet spots, families must complete all the required paperwork for the CDC and be verified before being able to utilize the Kinderspot app. The rate for the childcare spot will be based on the renter’s family income, not the family who has the permanent spot at the CDC. The subletting is based solely on the spot available. For example, if a family with a permanent CDC spot will be away for the holidays in December, they can add their two available weeks for the infant room on the Kinderspot app. Only an infant from another family can fill that spot. The fees will be paid directly to the CDC, not to the family that is putting the time up for sublet. This also allows families with permanent CDC spots to get a financial break when not using the CDC without losing their permanent childcare spot.

The Kinderspot application was created by Air Force Major Jacque Vasta, who modeled the application after applications utilized to sublet homes like AirBnBs, an application many military families utilize to find temporary lodging when moving.

The Kinderspot application is available for both Android and Apple phones. Since its inception in 2021, the application has 6200 users with almost 4,000 rented spots.  As of now, no other military branches are using the Kinderspot application.

Military spouse employment is an issue affecting military families, and legislation is moving forward, allowing for license reciprocity and expansion of on-base employment programs to include military spouses, paving the way for increased employment opportunities. None of these expansions affect those living overseas.

Living overseas often means fewer employment opportunities for military spouses. Positions on the post are filled by active-duty service members, Government Service (GS) employees, and local, national contractors. While military bases overseas can accept professional medical and teaching licenses from any state, that only applies if a position is available. Paid jobs are rarely available. Instead, spouses’ only opportunity is to volunteer with the American Red Cross or other similar organizations.

Spouses take these positions, hoping to jump on a paid position if one opens. Overseas bases rely on such uncompensated volunteers in on-post hospitals and clinics.

Per the Red Cross, this saves a military hospital in Germany more than $600,000 every year. Neither the Red Cross nor the hospital covers childcare for those volunteering. This means spouses pay for childcare without paid employment, which is not financially feasible for many military families living overseas. These unpaid spouses volunteer so they can maintain their professional credibility. The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany reported 275 Red Cross Volunteers working 20,600 volunteer hours in 2022. These volunteer positions include assisting patients, phlebotomy (drawing blood for lab work), physicians, dentists, nurses, and physician assistants. These jobs require taking on risk, requiring a highly specialized skill set and professional licenses and education that cost hundreds or thousands a year.

Remote work while living overseas is challenging because of distance, time differences, and legal restrictions. Some Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA), agreements that military families must abide by while living in a foreign country as part of their military service agreement, do not allow spouses to work remotely. Or remote companies do not qualify for work in that country. If remote work can be found, the hours may be East Coast Time while the military spouse lives in the Pacific, with a 13-to-14-hour difference depending on the time of year. Telework is allowed in Japan, South Korea, Bahrain, and Germany per the current SOFA agreements.

The SOFA is not the same across all military stations overseas. In Italy and Belgium, spouses must give up their SOFA status to work off-base – this would mean losing the NATO driver’s license required to drive in Italy. In comparison, spouses in Germany may telecommute for an American job or work in the German economy without losing their SOFA status.

The SOFA agreement also may limit home-based businesses depending on the country the military family resides in. Say goodbye to that finally established Spouse-ly shop. These regulations may be in place not by the specific country but by the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) to limit revenue competition.

What jobs are open on post due to high turnover are those in retail or food service, but the pay is low – even at around $10 an hour. These positions have no benefits, and shift work still requires child care, which typically costs more than $10/hour.

While these military families are on one-income, many qualify for low-income programs because their income is below the poverty line. Stars and Stripes shared one person’s account about their time overseas. “It’s depleted our family’s savings account, forced us to lower our standard of living, and affected my mental health in that I feel I’m no longer a useful contributor to my family’s well-being.” This lack of morale in the military family also affects the military service member. It may lead to family discord and emotional and financial stress on the service member. It may lead to the service member finishing their current commitment and exiting the service. Family stressors are a retention problem for these experienced servicemembers.

Per Stars and Stripes, 6,786 military members based in Europe qualified for the Women, Infants, and Children supplemental food program (WIC) from January 1 to October 26, 2022. At the time of writing, the 2022 statistics were not available for review to know the number of military service members stationed in Europe during that period.

The way ahead requires legislative and cultural changes for overseas locations. Legislative changes will not provide a quick answer, as legislation is never immediate. Hospital and installation overseas culture change to providing paid positions to military spouses instead of relying on a large volunteer force would pave the way to change. This would require the Defense Health Agency (DHA) to change policies on hiring military spouses overseas and allowing spouses to bid on positions as their businesses or expand the contractors and government service positions. The DHA plans to lower the number of non-active duty jobs in both CONUS and OCONUS. This change would also require increasing the minimum wage in overseas locations to match the stateside minimum wage. It would require an open conversation among military families, commanders, and leaders who can affect change. If the military and government agencies approached these changes, it would increase family satisfaction and may increase recruitment when numbers at low. The reality there is not a “quick fix,” but an openness to discussion and change are the first steps.

One of the barriers to military spousal employment is the transferability of professional licensure. Teachers have to apply for a new license in a new state with different requirements – some requiring more education while they have been teaching in another state for 5+ years. Medical professionals applying for a license in a new state may also have new requirements of different continuing education classes or specific classes even after practicing for a period of time. Anyone with commercial certificates or licenses- HVAC, plumber, etc, would not have to prove anything other than their previous state license.

In 2018 and 2019, individual states began discussing and passing legislation allowing for the compatibility of military spouse professional licenses. Arizona passed HB 2569 in 2019, specifically naming license reciprocity for military spouses. This meant any person who established residence in the states or was married to an active duty member in the military who PCS’d to the state, currently licensed in another state for at least a year without revocation or suspension or other forms of discipline meant the person could apply for the license in Arizona, pay the fees, pass a criminal history and be given a license without having to meet Arizona specific state requirements due to already being a license holder in another state.

In 2023, a change in legislature allows out-of-state professional licenses and certificates to be recognized by the new state the military family moved to. The Justice Department has released a letter specifically addressing state licensing authorities about the federal protections extended to military families. The SCRA, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, was amended in 2023, adding verbiage specifically stating that military spouses and service members can have their out-of-state licenses recognized as valid in the new state while stationed there as long as they meet certain requirements. This federal law supersedes state laws.

The Justice Department released this letter in response to a lawsuit by a military spouse in Texas. Per the lawsuit, the military spouse held counseling licenses in Ohio and Missouri and moved to Texas with her spouse’s military orders, and Texas denied her request to have her out-of-state license recognized, stating that the SCRA law “would not apply to Texas.”

Per the SCRA provision, the license would be considered valid in the new location if the servicemember and spouse must have moved to a location outside the jurisdiction of the licensing authority that issued the covered license or certificate due to military orders, provide a copy of the military orders to the licensing authority in the new jurisdiction, have actively used the license or certificate during the two years immediately preceding the move, remain in good standing with the licensing authority(ies) of the out-of-state licenses and submit to the authority of the licensing authority in the new jurisdiction for the purposes of standards of practice, discipline, and fulfillment of any continuing education requirements.

This saves military families time and money and removes the application period and fees as the out-of-state license is accepted. If legal assistance is needed, office locations can be found at legalassistance.law.af.mil

Have you utilized the new license reciprocity? How was the process?

According to annual research collected, performed, and analyzed by Blue Star Families, one of the top three stressors for active-duty families is military spouse employment. One of the biggest challenges to military spouse employment is adequate childcare. Military bases are usually located in remote areas or areas that are highly populated, like San Diego and Washington D.C., which adds an extra challenge to finding safe, affordable childcare.

While there are Child Development Centers (CDC) at each military post, most are small, understaffed, and unable to accommodate the true need for childcare. In addition, CDCs prioritize who gets a coveted spot, with dual military first and two working parents second. Those new to a military base looking for work are left waiting. Families often put their name on a CDC list months prior to a baby being born, to be called when the child is two, and now the spouse has been unable to have consistent work for those two years or longer.

The In-Home Child Care pilot has been expanded and is now called the Child Care in Your Home program. The program provides fee assistance for full-time, in-home childcare providers. The program once covered five areas but now includes 11 locations.

These locations include:

-Colorado Springs, CO

-Seattle/Tacoma, WA

-Jacksonville/Mayport, FL

-Fort Walton Beach, FL

-Fayetteville, NC

-Las Vegas, NV

-National Capital Region

-Hawaii

-San Diego, CA

-Norfolk, VA

-San Antonio, TX

The program covers a minimum of 30 hours to a maximum of 60 hours in a week.

The Child Care Aware program is a separate program that provides fee assistance for service members to use community-based care facilities. Families apply for the assistance program per their military branch on the website above. The amount of assistance is based on the military branch and service member’s rank.

The MilitaryChildCare.com resource is a DOD website providing information on military-operated and military-approved childcare programs worldwide. This may provide insight into programs available before a move or a child’s birth.

Military One Source has a free online database to find hourly, flexible, and on-demand childcare. To utilize this resource, sign into your Military One Source account, and you will be given a unique member code to use on the child care service page.

What have been your findings if you have used any of the child care programs to find child care in your area?

Among military families, one pain point involves the military’s impact on quality of life: spousal employment, housing, and childcare are three main points. The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) through Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) announced the Quality of Life Panel.

Per their announcement, the panel would focus on these issues and more, including housing, compensation, health care, and support programs for spouses of service members. The committee would start with at least two hearings a month from officials from the Pentagon. The notes from these meetings would be made into a written report to the Military Personnel Subcommittee Chair and Ranking Member to be made into a proposal for the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Chairman Mike Rogers specifically stated, “I created the Quality of Life Panel to specifically focus on issues impacting the quality of life for our servicemembers and their families – there is absolutely no reason why any U.S. servicemember should have to worry about food or unsafe housing. I have no doubt that the hard work of this panel will lead to much-needed improvements across the Department of Defense to ensure that the needs of our service members and their families are fulfilled.”

Military Personnel Subcommittee Ranking Member Andy Kim (D-NJ) said, “Raising pay, improving TRICARE, addressing mental health, increasing access to childcare, expanding workforce development, and other efforts are needed. As the Ranking Member of the Military Personnel subcommittee, I’m glad we are standing up this Quality of Life Panel to ensure we are prioritizing people over hardware.”

The list of Pentagon officials and experts was not included in the press release. Within the National Capitol Region are two major organizations with their pulse on the needs of military families – National Military Family Association and Blue Star Families. National Military Family Association conducts research, data collection and analytics annually on multiple topics, including but not limited to health, education, employment and military children. Blue Star Families collects information across military branches from military families every year in their annual survey.  While this data is shared with legislative leaders, this committee would also be a great location for this information.

Members of the Committee Include:

Majority:
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), Chairman
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC)
Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX)
Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA)
Rep. James Moylan (R-GU)
Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO)
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), ex officio
 
Minority:
 
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Ranking Member
Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX)
Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-WA)
Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA)
Rep. Don Davis (D-NC)
Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), ex officio
 

Keep up to date on hearings and news from the House Armed Services Committee here. You can also subscribe and get the hearings, news, and updates directly to your email box here.

Your voice matters! If your state isn’t represented in the committee but you want to share your concerns, find and contact your representative here.

Pay disparity between the miltary versus civilian population is a real concern. Military members and their families must move wherever the military sends them; this includes areas that have a high cost of living but the pay changes very little.

Base pay is just that – the base pay that military members earn. This pay is based on rank and years of military service. It can also increase with the annual increase to fight inflation. A representative in the U.S. House is pushing to change the base pay. Representative Mike Garcia recently gave a speech in the House advocating that base pay would increase to a minimum of $31,200, making it an average $15/hour for a 40-hour work week.

Representative Garcia said, “the gap between pay for our troops and their civilian counterparts is at an all-time high. All the while, China has closed the gap against the US in several domains. We need some wins under our belt when it comes to national security and readiness. And the men and women in fancy suits in this chamber and in the chamber just 600 feet north of here, need to do the right thing for those military wearing uniforms. Not in five years or even in one year, but this year.” The speech can be watched on YouTube here.

Do military members work a 40-hour work week? While on deployment, military members can be on call 24/7 – this would mean that pay would not equate to $15/hour. However, military deployment schedules have dropped drastically with the announcement of the end of the War on Terrorism.

Pay for military members does change with Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) with each move. Each year, The Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO) reviews the rental market around the military bases within the United States. The data is gathered on apartments, townhouses, and single-family homes to determine the cost. The median rent and average utilities are utilized to calculate the BAH. BAH is meant to cover 95% the median cost in a military housing area. This calculation is typically done once a year, although it was done twice in 2022 leading to a temporary increase in BAH. If BAH decreases in an area after the service member moves there, the BAH is protected to remain that amount. If the BAH increases, the BAH will still increase for the military member. However, this BAH protection does not continue with a Permanent Change of Station (PCS), reduction in pay grade or change in dependent status.  

Is this increase enough? An E1 in the DOD is typically an 18-year-old individual. These individuals would be potentially working minimum wage jobs, or maybe skilled jobs with higher pay. Raising the base pay to at least the average minimum wage may provide more incentive. However, in certain areas where minimum wage is $20 or higher, there may not be incentive to join the military in the enlisted ranks.

Either way, the military is a force that is always on call, often working more than the 40-hour work week, and appreciation through actual changes and means would be appreciated.

May is Military Appreciation Month. Many companies offer special deals to the military and their families to celebrate the month. The marketing of these deals promotes how ‘military friendly’ the companies are. While considerate and sometimes helpful, it is also a PR move. It is a chance to pull in military families to use the discount, attract military supporters favoring companies that give back, and showcase corporate patriotism. But is a military discount enough?

Several military members and their spouses shared that while they appreciate the discount, they would prefer that the discounts are offered year-round versus only on a promotional basis. The promotional basis feels like a strict public relations move and not demonstrating the steadfast support of military members and their families around the globe. The National Parks, for instance, offer a free family pass to military and veterans for year-round access to National Parks. And home improvement stores Home Depot and Lowes offer a year-round discount.

One Marine Corps spouse stated, “We are too dependent on discounts as a form of appreciation, especially when it’s a marketing tactic to get our business. Show your appreciation by supporting nonprofits that support us in the community, host a dinner for deployed families, and match donations to local resources.” The unfortunate reality is that corporate discounts and other benefits are increasingly necessary to make ends meet, but should they be?

When military retirement has decreased from 2.5% to 2% of base pay per year of service and retiree healthcare is increasingly outsourced to understaffed private networks, military retirement is not as stand-alone as it once was; is a military discount enough to make up for that? In all fairness, retirement benefits do not apply to all active-duty military. Per the Army’s statistics, the average service length is typically 2-6 years.

In 2022, the total number of those serving on active duty, reserve, and guard was around 1.18 million. Of those on active duty, the Army had 482,416, the Navy 343,223, and the Air Force (Space Force included) had 328,888. The Marine Corps had 179,378 on active duty. Per the Council of Foreign Relations, this is less than 1 percent of the population of the United States. Per the Census Bureau, the number of veterans continued to decline; in 1980, veterans made up 18% of the population, while by 2018, only 7% of the population, which continues to decline.

This decrease in number corresponds to fewer representatives fighting for those who serve. Reflecting the community, it serves, only 17% of the legislators in the 117th Congress in 2021 were military veterans, whereas, in 1973, 81% of the Senate and 75% of the House had served in the military. The draft of World War II can explain this high percentage. Even in the late 1990s, this dropped to 37% in the Senate and 27% in the House 30 years after the end of the draft.

With such a low number of those serving, and those in Congress, a place of power to change the military culture, a similarly low percentage, what can be expected for thanks of military service?

The Right Now Benefits

For those serving for a few years, the benefits include the GI Bill, the military commissary, and healthcare benefits.  

The GI Bill is the most significant benefit. This benefit allows service members to utilize the GI Bill to pay for a four-year college. If they do not want to or cannot use it for themselves, they can gift it to their spouse or children. This is a financial benefit, especially as the cost of attending a 4-year university soars.

The military commissary is the grocery store on post specifically there to support those who serve. The commissary, supported by congressional funds, provided the most affordable way to shop. The Government Accountability Office has reviewed the commissaries appropriated funding and the business model for the commissary. Over the last ten years, the appropriation funding has dropped several hundred thousand dollars translating to less savings for shoppers as the commissary moves to a self-sustaining business model. For reference, all other grocery stores are self-sufficient, and the commissary is considered part of military pay for now.

One of the many things said during recruiting is that all healthcare will be free for the service member and any family members. While TRICARE Prime does offer free healthcare, is it accessible healthcare? Military Treatment Facilities, or MTFs, were established to care for military members and their families. Over the last decade, available services have dropped in several locations requiring that military families are seen off-post civilian facilities. The civilian medical community is already overwhelmed in many areas, and adding thousands more family members to the system has led to a backlog. The backlog means that family members cannot receive healthcare in a timely manner. That promised healthcare is no longer there. Many medical groups have dropped TRICARE as an accepted insurance due to the low payouts that TRICARE provides. Groups dropping military families also go for the dental coverage of United Concordia. While there was a brief period when MetLife provided dental coverage and did provide more coverage than United Concordia, it changed back several years ago. Like medical providers, many dental providers no longer take United Concordia due to the low payout. TRICARE has started requiring generic medications for all patients, servicemembers, and dependents as a cost savings measure. For medications like Synthroid, a medication for those with low thyroid hormone, the change to generic can negatively affect their health. Generic medications have the same ingredients as brand-name, but sometimes their additives differ enough, over 20% in some cases, to lead to absorption changes – thus affecting their health and wellbeing.

While military discounts are appreciated, does it compensate for the loss in benefits? Many new recruits may not know any better, and perhaps any medical or dental care is better than none. For those seasoned military families who have been in since 9/11, they have seen a real change in provisions – and a drastic one. A discount on Disney tickets is not the same as receiving timely visits with a new provider in a new town.

Service members and families alike would give up discounts if it meant that legislation with real changes passed. If childcare was made more accessible and jobs for military spouses were a true priority, this would be genuine appreciation. The world of the military is no longer a one-income world – it is not sustainable. Inflation skyrockets, and the pay is not enough for many families to get by. However, remaining a two-income family comes with the family’s sacrifice when military members take unaccompanied orders so the spouse can remain on the job.

One military family with 10+ years of service stated, “I’d just like our benefits to be left alone. That would be true appreciation.”