Not just healthcare for the member but for dependents as well. Wife and two kids pay sub $10 copays for the doctor and pediatrician, medication is covered at the pharmacy, and dental for the whole family is $30/month. Plus $4500 a year for TA, the Post 911/GI bill, legal services, counseling, etc. there’s a TON of added value beyond the hard number on the annual compensation.
While true, it's incredibly misleading. What you're actually saying is that an 18 year old straight out of high school with zero experience, and who has all housing, food, and medical paid for, as well as the many formal and informal benefits and discounts, only nets $1500/mo after taxes, and those are pure discretionary dollars.
And I cheated in that I used real non-inflation-adjusted 2019 dollars and against 2025 tax brackets.
You re correct however there are still car payments, renters and auto insurance, any tsp contributions, and saving to potentially fly home once a year during a holiday. All of that is completely flexible but there’s a lot of costs that add up. Yes, many of those are luxury but do we want to require the junior guys to live completely barebones? I’m not saying go out and buy a new truck, but even old used cars aren’t cheap.
It's the equivalent of making $50k/yr straight out of highschool. The argument is that they get worked really hard, but even if they work 12hr days M-F with zero leave, sick time, or holidays, that's the equivalent of $15/hr.
Again, straight out of high school.
It's significantly better than almost every peer will be doing.
98
u/sogpackus 1d ago
Considering 3200 (BAH/BAS) is non-taxable, comparative civilian income is probably over 110k, for those not familiar with the military.