2011 pay raise showdown: House, 1.9%; Senate, 1.4% - Military Money, Navy Money, navy pay, pay charts - Navy Times

2011 pay raise showdown: House, 1.9%; Senate, 1.4%

The battle is on in Congress over military pay, and it has taken a new turn with possible ramifications far beyond the size of the increase that will take effect Jan. 1.

The House of Representatives wants a 1.9 percent military raise for 2011, an amount that would shave another half a percentage point off a perceived gap between average military and private-sector wages by providing an across-the-board increase higher than the average civilian wage hike last year.

The Senate, however, is siding with the Obama administration by putting a 1.4 percent across-the-board raise in its version of the 2011 defense authorization bill passed May 27 by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Additionally, at the urging of Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., chairman of that committee’s personnel panel, the Senate bill takes the first steps toward establishing a new formula for military pay raises that, beginning in 2012, would provide bigger increases to ground combat troops.

“There is no civilian equivalent for a grunt,” Webb said. “We need to have a new formula that recognizes that.”

Differences in the House and Senate bills must be reconciled before a final bill passes. The Obama administration has made clear that it sides with the Senate, although it is unclear how hard it would fight for a smaller raise.

A White House policy statement issued May 27 said the administration “values the service members of the U.S. Armed Forces and believes the president’s proposed 1.4 percent pay increase is appropriate in light of other benefits and other forms of compensation.”

The 1.4 percent raise “is targeted to avoid hindering the [Defense] Department’s ability to focus on recruiting or retaining for key skills, and will ensure the availability of financial resources needed to sustain our combat power at a time of war.”

However, when asked recently about the 1.9 percent increase in the House bill, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would not fight it. “I’m not crazy,” he said.

Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., who chairs the House Armed Services Committee’s military personnel panel and pushed for the bigger increase, said the 1.9 percent raise would mark the 12th consecutive year in which Congress acted to reduce a perceived gap between military and civilian pay that once reached 13.5 percent.

In an odd coincidence, the pay gap — measured by comparing military and average private-sector pay increases since 1982 — would narrow to 1.9 percent as a result of the 1.9 percent raise.

The 1.4 percent raise in the Senate bill would leave a gap of 2.4 percent between military and civilian pay when comparing salary increases since 1982.

Defense officials have argued for several years that total military compensation, including basic pay, housing and food allowances, tax advantages and other benefits, is now competitive with private-sector pay.

A 1.9 percent raise would cost $1.4 billion, $377 million more than a 1.4 percent hike, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The bigger raise would add $2.5 billion to defense costs over five years.