The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 was passed January 1, 2021, and secured a 3.0% military pay raise for 2021.
Base Pay
Monthly base pay is based on rank and years of service. For instance, if you are an E5 with over 4 years of service, the base pay is $2,798.10. An O3E, a commissioned office with over 4 years of enlisted service, with over 8 years of total service has a base pay of $6,628.20. A breakdown of active duty pay for Enlisted, Warrant Officers, Commissions Officers with over 4 years of Enlisted Service and Commissioned Officers can be found here.
Basic Allowance for Housing Pay
In addition to monthly pay, depending on rank/pay grade, number of dependents and geographic location, a service member collect Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH).
BAH rates are assessed annually to determine if there is a need for housing allowance to change to better align with current housing costs based on location. The new BAH rate are effective beginning 1 January 2021 and overall have an average increase of 2.9%. Check your local area by inputting military rank and the zip code of the military base or city associated with your or your family’s military orders to determine the 2021 BAH rates here.
If you are living on base, the military housing agency will take the BAH at the previously agreed to rate. For instance, if you moved into your home and the BAH rate is decreased, your BAH rate is grandfathered in and will not decrease so they will continue to collect the previously agreed rate. If you are living off base and your rate goes up, you will keep the difference. And if it goes down, your rate will not decrease.
Additional Pays
Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS): BAS is meant to offset the cost of meals to service members and comes from the historic origins of when pay in the military included room and board. Beginning in 2002, Enlisted service members received a full BAS ration per month. When rations are provided in the field, these meals are then paid for from the BAS paid to the service member. BAS increases annually based on the USDA food cost index. If a service member is on unaccompanied orders and living in government quarts, they receive BAS II. The 2021 BAS rates for Officers and Enlisted Service Members as well as BAS II can be found on the DFAS page here.
Hardship Duty Pay (HDP): HDP is divided into two categories: HDP-Location and HDP-Mission. HDP-Location is compensation provided to service members assigned to locations that have been determined to have living conditions below the conditions provided within the Continental U.S., or CONUS. The amount provided to the service member is dependent on the location area. HDP-Mission is provided to service members that are assigned to designated hardship missions as listed here.
Hostile Fire/Imminent Danger Pay (HFP/IDP): This is also referred to as combat pay. Any service member assigned to a designated IDP area is paid per month, so if you enter a designated IDP for one day, the service member is paid for the entire month. The HFP is pro-rated based on hostile fire. Service members cannot receive both IDP and HFP. Further details can be found on DFAS here. Currently qualified hazardous duty areas are listed on DFAS here. Imminent Danger Pay as of January 2021 is listed here.
Hazardous Duty Incentive Pay (HDIP): HDIP designates special duty pay based on hazardous duty. There many duty options including but not limited to Parachute Duty, Flight Deck Duty and Polar Region Flight Operations Duty.
Family Separation Allowance (FSA): This pay is extended to service members when dependents are unable to accompany the service member. This is often extended to service members when on temporary duty on ship, deployed overseas, or on unaccompanied orders. FSA is pro-rated per day after 30 continuous days away for your permanent duty station.
Assignment Incentive Pay (AIP): AIP is extended to service members that involuntarily extend in unusual assignments.
Depending on occupation, special pays for aviation, submarine, diving and foreign language proficiency pays may also be offered.
Entitlements are listed in block 10 of the Leave and Earning Statement (LES).
The old Chief says…
I am a retired US Air Force Chief Master Sergeant (E-9) with over 30-years on active duty. I have pretty much seen it all; not everything, but enough to offer some advice…
I want to commend Heather Walsh on a wonderful article. Over my many years of service, it amazed me that so many of the personnel that I worked with, worked for, and worked around did not know the most basic facts about their pay and few ever inspected their Leave and Earnings Statement (LES).
I have a challenge for all active-duty enlisted and warrant officer and their families.
Can you name the three mandatory deductions taken out of the pay of every enlisted and warrant officer?
It does not matter if the member is single, married, single with dependents, or whatever; you just have to be enlisted or a warrant officer. While you think about it, I’ll reminisce of times gone by…
Back in the ’80s, while I was stationed at Langley AFB, VA, I was a volunteer with the Family Support Facility. In the evenings, I conducted a Conversational English Class for foreign-born dependent spouses (almost all were wives). It was an easygoing get-together where I had the folks just talked about their day. Many who spoke very little English were reluctant to speak at all, but when it came to family, they had plenty to share… Besides not having a good command of English, most could not read English and often shopped at the commissary by looking at the pictures on the cans.
One Spouse told how she bought a 3-pound can of “Fried Chicken” only to find nothing but cooking grease in the can. Turns out she bought a can of Crisco and because it had a picture of fried chicken on the can…
Another topic often spoken about in the class was the pay the military spouses received and it turned out that some dependent spouses did not know that the pay included more than base pay; like housing, separate rats, clothing, HOLA, COLA, etc… On more than one occasion, I had pissed off military members come to me to tell me it was none of my business telling their wives about their pay… I told them I never said a word, it was what the wives talked about. (Afterwards, I called their First Sergeants, Master Chiefs, etc… to give them a heads-up about the one-sided financial situations of some of their personnel…).
Now, have you figured out what are the mandatory deductions taken out of the pay of every enlisted and warrant officer?
The three are: your Federal Income Tax Withholding (FITW), your Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA ) — your Social Security and Medicare Contributions (usually shows up on two separate lines…), and finally the Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH).
As one to never pass up a “teachable moment” I made sure all of my personnel knew this. In addition, as a Chief, I often chaired Airman, NCO, and SNCO of the Quarter/Year Boards and I often asked this question. On one particular board, one of my Senior Airmen appeared before my board and I asked him this question. He quickly replied, my income tax withholding, my social security and, and… Then like a deer in the headlights, he went blank, stuttering “and, and…” Then after a few seconds, probably seemed like forever to him, the fire returned to his eyes and he remembered the third one and he blurted out, “the Old Chief’s Home…” All the board members could not keep from laughing. He sat there dumbfounded. When we regained our composure, we let him know that the correct answer was the “United States Soldier Home” (USSH) — subsequently renamed to the Armed Forces Retirement Home. Since his answer was not intended to insult or embarrass, and since “Old Chiefs” do in fact reside there, we gave him full credit for his answer…
Now the final teachable moment; make sure you train your folk in more areas than just their immediate duties, groom them to advance and even replace you. As I learned early on, if you are irreplaceable, you are un-promotable… That also means you may keep yourself from being nominated for special duty, taking short notice leave, and a whole host of other things…
Keep your ear to the ground and your nose to the wind. As always — Aim High!