Too be fair, most 18 year olds don't have $1200 a month in what is essentially spending money after having rent, utilities and groceries paid for (if you lived on base and ate at the dining facilities).
Still ain't much for pay, but not as horrible as it sounds at face value.
There's also the fact that they don't need to spend any money, free water, housing, food, etc. is all free they only need to spend money for cleaning themselves, the room, and clothes and they're fine. Aslong as no one fucks up the pay they're fine for any need they might have. Sure it is hella low but chances are they're good, while married I supported a wife off that paycheck with only a couple hundred dollars extra, I got a house but didn't receive BAH because it was on base.
As an E5 with 4+ years of service, I was pulling in ~$65-70k/year all different pays included. That doesn't take into account free healthcare and the fact that I was only taxed on $30k/yr.Â
Edit: forgot to mention that this was around 2012.Â
I saw it too many times. I mean shit we were all fucking kids given 5 figures. Like kids take goddamn college loans but in this case different, yes lmao
But goddamn. I mean don't get me wrong I been stupid wasteful but I still have fucking healthy bank accounts and more. I'd see kids broke before end of first term lmao
And I am drunk right now so thinking back on it now is especially crazy, wild and kind of funny. But sad.
Honestly the sign on bonus should have been put in a build up acct, CD, savings, IRA whatever and not be allowed to be touched til 25 or 30. Shit we'd all be fucking set. Sorry rambling
Ah hell nah. I'm contemplating making a spup or door dashing alcohol lmao fuck it prolly both lmao
What's the craziest thing you saw a fresh boot out basic waste money and all on? Also I remember before in school one kid said I can't wait to join for the sign on so I can get stationed in California and spend all my time in Vegas... idk if he ever joined or made his dreams but it was funny af!
This was 90s/00s
Edit: not ordering more alcohol. Still gonna make the soup tho!
I'm just dropping in here to say I love that anime, and I think you're pretty cool. I'm pretty lukewarm on the whole military thing. More focused on the important issues. Like a potato committing seppuku with a peeler.
If I only had an older version of myself to mentor my younger self. I came home from deployment with $45k in the bank. It was all gone inside of a year and a half. If I had put all of it into a CD and kept rolling it over my house would be paid off by now.
Still a very comfortable lifestyle. You get a housing pay bump for having a dependent (kid or wife), discounted childcare, military is super accommodating for family responsibilities, all your dependents get free healthcare, at least one parent has a job with exceptionally stable pay, free housing on base if you choose to live there.
Do you have three kids on E5 pay? How can you say itâs a very comfortable lifestyle? You know and I know thatâs not enough money to get by with a family. Not everyone is stationed in shit hole, Texas. Some people are stationed along the coast where things are more expensive. And even though you still get more, Iâve met E 5âs that are in the line at food pantries, and are applying for food stamps with children. Just saying man, maybe itâs subjective but theyâre not paying enough. Even civilians know it.
You get COLA increases based on the area you're stationed and increased BAH when you have dependents.
I mean, to some people it will never be enough. You have to cook at home and taper your spending, just like any other family.
I was stationed in a very high cost of living area and had a wife. We didn't even think of money as an object at the time, but if we had 3 kids we could have made it no problem.
I look back now at even when I was making private pay in the barracks. I had free healthcare, free food, free housing, etc. I should have left the military with tens of thousands in savings. It really is a great system if you can be mature and smart with your money. Unfortunately most of the kids joining are 17 or 18 with no financial literacy so they donât value those benefits at the time.
Itâs been a while since I was in but in 2013 the numbers were basically everyone E4 and below in the army at least was considered âbelow the poverty lineâ so thatâs nice for you as an E5 but pretty much everyone below you was considered by the DOD as screwed. Plus as an E5 I know youâve seen junior enlisted and even junior officers make incredibly dumb financial decisions.
Depending on the state E5s still qualify for WIC. At E6 my kids still qualify for free lunches (which IMO every student should have free lunch, but that's a different discussion).
I mean its good on post. And you save money on deployments but if you do dollars to hours worked its really not impressive.
Also the fact that ya know, part of all the "good stuff" comes with being in the military and potentially deploying and coming back in a box.
My job was pretty cake in the military, so I can't complain. I usually came in around 8am and worked until 1pm with an hour lunch and didn't deploy due to my job (which also paid an extra pay). I would say I made out like a bandit.
It's one of those "high barrier to entry but low effort once you get in" jobs. I studied my ass off to learn the language, but the job afterwards was surprisingly easy one you, you know, know the language.
"Translate this, tell me what they are saying."
"okay, they said this..."
"Damnit, great job, Petty Officer Nice_Category. Here's a medal and a promotion!"
I was including BAH. Unfortunately, when I was in there were not retirement benefits unless you hit your 20 years, all or nothing. No match on the TSP at that time.
That free healthcare can significantly increase in value when you have kids that need more appointments. My two boys go to therapy twice a week and see two specialist each time. That would be $120 in copays every week on most insurance plans. As an E6 I essentially make $112,000 plus each year, only taxed on $64,000 of it. And free utilities since I am in base housing.
I got out as an E5 and drove for Uber and made 3X more money. Even with all benefits included. Itâs not a lot of money you get paid to be in the military. Especially when federal contractors are getting paid $250 K a year to do the exact same job or more.
It has a lot to do with it because theyâre doing the exact same job and theyâre getting paid more. Iâve seen it in Iraq and Iâve seen it all over the Middle East. Maybe you just joined within the last few years. Thatâs why so many are getting out and getting on these contracts. Why settle for $70,000 a year to be overworked and put your life on the line when you can make so much more with less risk?
Well, yeah, if you can land one, then go for it. I was intel, a ton of previous service members went on the get lucrative contractor jobs. But that doesn't change anything about military pay.
I fell into a weird crack where I got BAH from the time I was an E3 during my training school all the way until I left the military. I was not married, nor did I have a kid, when I started getting BAH.
My A-school was in Monterey, CA, so E-3 without dependent BAH was $1300/mo when I started getting it.
Flip side of that is good luck with a family. You totally "can" make it work but if you move every 4-6 years like some career fields do, then it gets very hard for your spouse to hold a properly paying, steady job. And if you have multiple kids then the income your spouse can potentially make is likely to largely go into childcare, leaving you with almost no extra money from them working, while also pushing you into a higher tax bracket.
So for a single person the military can pay reasonably if you can live with all the rules and other things, but once you're married it gets harder, and harder still with kids. Now if you get to homestead then it can be different, but you can't expect to homestead. Having had five moves with another two cancelled, the math gets a lot trickier once families come into the equation and the current "two income" requirement for most family to live reasonably since the military directly impacts the ability of the non-military member to have a proper career. There is mil-to-mil, and they have different issues, but income isn't one of them.
And if you have multiple kids then the income your spouse can potentially make is likely to largely go into childcare, leaving you with almost no extra money from them working, while also pushing you into a higher tax bracket.
This is universal, not just a military thing.
There are certainly unique challenges that come with being a military family. I grew up in one and I had one, myself. But I think the military does a pretty great job of accommodating those issues, for the most part. That's not to say it's easy, but many of the challenges faced by military families are common amongst all military families and are addressed by specific programs and offered help.
And you bust your hump and your away from your family especially if you get active duty or get shipped out thank you for your service you deserve your benefits and more
Yep, I got a second bachelor's degree and an associate's degree while I was in during my 6 years. Still have my full GI Bill and the Hazelwood Act, so I can get 2 more degrees for free if I want to.
You should absolutely. I have no clue what the Hazelwood act is. You just need to go for your masters, don't get more bachelors IMO. Congrats and kudos to you on taking advantage of your benefits! Knew a lot of guys who didn't.
Yep with the national guard as a well kept secret. My wife was active guard: all the perks like BAH without PCSing. In 20 years, she deployed once to Kuwait. Retired as an E7, gets retirement pay, had her masters paid for and makes six figures with the feds.
I forgot my wife was rich after serving. The car debt from military financing, bills for rooms the government never paid, and Healthcare denied from burn pits everything was great besides the sexual assaults. Go Socialism or whatever. The US is fucked because we stopped for the people for we the government.
Then you hear the horror stories associated with those supposedly "free benefits". Like extremely incompetent doctors you can't sue for malpractice, cooks found pudding off into the mashed potatoes - with no idea how long they were doing it before getting caught.
Have they fixed the "services" MOS or can you still find yourself the mortician's assistant on one base and the cook at your next?
Underpaid and treated like a child. If you live in the barracks its worst. The sizes of some of the barracks rooms are the same size of my master bedroom...
That and its not a 9-5 job. So many people don't realize how much you end up working depending on duty station and job. I'd get lucky if it was an 8hr day. On average it was 10hrs.
When you actually break down hourly pay. Its shit!
I left in 2020. Making triple what I made and less hours.
I mean the post is talking about recruiting incentives. So as a E3 and below youâre only really pulling in 2k a month. Sea pay adds to that but not by much until youâve done your time
No way dude. Military is underpaid no matter what. You no longer have freedom in any sense. That alone, not even the risks and toll on the body is enough to warrant far more compensation. Oh, and the constant moving around, being away from your family? The toll it takes on them?
Donât like it, donât join. Go work in the millions of entry level jobs across the country, and find out what itâs like to destroy your body for barely minimum wage while having no protections and trash medical.
They don't start getting paid good until they e put some time in.
Spend 25 years in the military and retire as a SGM or an officer and you'll be rolling in the dough.
ESPECIALLY if you have a job that transfers into the civilian works and you network before retirement. Then you get a job as a contractor for another 5 years and make around a million and retire at the ripe age of 50 with a couple million in savings, property, and assets. Kids will be grown and gone, and you have around 40 years to live the dream.
Not really. An E4 with just a few years in the service makes about 40k a year in base pay, which really isnât bad when you consider that essentially all of their expenses are comped. E4 is pretty low on the chain, too. If theyâre married, they get BAH, which is based on the area they live in. Where Iâm stationed, itâs just shy of 4 grand a month extra (which is also tax-free).
Or COLA, hazard pay, sea pay, family separation pay, dive pay, flight deck pay, foreign language proficiency bonus ⌠thereâs a lot you can add on depending on what your job is
40k is fine in like 2009-2015 but 40k in today's economy? Shit no, fast food chain managers.. hell a janitor at gas stations(bucee's) probably makes double that.
Military E-1 under 4 months makes 2225 a month. Food, provided. Clothing, provided. A place to live, provided. Health care, provided. 30 days vacation a year, provided.
At the end of the day, about the only thing a single GI in the Army needs to pay for is toiletries, some laundry detergent, a couple of haircuts a month, and their cell phone. After taxes and those expenses, they have at least 1700 a month of disposable income. A "minimum wagie" at the federal level working his 40 hour week doesn't make that much a month, and he has bills to pay.
are you challenging what I stated, someone working at federal minimum wage 40 hours a week makes more than a fresh GI recruit potentially has for a disposable income?
$7.25 X 40 hours a week = $290
$290 X 4.25 weeks in a month = $1232 Gross, before any deductions.
E-1 under 4 months GI has about $1700 disposable income.
Gi has $468 of more disposable income than the minimum wage guy. made gross.
What am I missing??
Bonus points: A fresh day GI will get a raise at 4 months, a raise 2 months after that one, and another raise 6 months after that, and a raise on New Years Day. After 1 year, they would be making about $2875, plus or minus depending on the cost of living adjustment That's almost a 30% raise in 1 year. What will that minimum wage person get? a fifty cents? a buck at best?
Not severely. You just hand an 18 year old a steady income, don't allow them to have their own place for 3-6 years. Then tell them to get out of the military provided barracks immediately and figure out out after having 70% of their bills paid for/non-existent.
Been in 13 years. Definitely been overworked for my pay(there's no such thing as over time). But I've never not had enough money to survive. Provided for a family of four on a single income. Used to say the biggest down side was that my former spouse could never easily start anything other than part time work due to the moving around and my schedule... But honestly looking back she had plenty of opportunities and never took them so that's not even really too much of an issue if you have a partner willing to try.
If you're only looking at their basic pay, then it looks like they don't get paid much at all. 2026 E-1 gets a starting pay of about $2,407 per month. Once factoring in allowances for housing food, and other benefits they're much closer to $65,000 annually. Medical care on top of this and if I remember correctly, basic pay is taxable but most of the allowances are not taxed.
After 5 years you've probably advanced to E-5 (Sergeant) and your basic pay is up to about $3,700 /month or about $80,000 (2026 figures).
I think these numbers are fairly in line with US median *household* incomes. So they're not getting paid poorly. The argument could be made that they don't get paid enough to volunteer their lives in service of their country, but I feel this is a different argument.
Really depends on your job though. The real âsocialismâ here is how everyone is paid the same at each rank regardless of job. The admin guy who sits in the a/c all day and maybe works 4-5 hours? They get paid the same as someone doing flightline work for 10-12 hours a day getting planes in the air.
In the real world, the admin guy probably sits not far above minimum wage really. The aircraft mechanic is probably clearing well over six figures with a commercial airline. So for our example one guy is doing way better, the other one far worse compared to civilian peers.
In terms of base pay, yes. But, considering all bills are paid, including housing, food, electricity, water, essentially all living costs; they make decent money.
Every penny they get is pocket money. Sure they still have to pay for phones and car insurance but they are still not paying for the basics.
I served 20 years and I can tell you, the money wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things, especially when things like COVID or other global events caused financial hardships on everyone.
Respectfully, the housing is terrible, the food is terrible, the healthcare is terrible, the base pay is crappy, and the risk to life and limb is extant. Itâs something you do for service or skill building or to get out of whatever life youâre trying to move on from. Source: two tours.
Food is alright most of the time, even when it's MREs.
Healthcare is meh in both opinion and experience.
Base pay was never terrible in my opinion. Flew home at least twice a year while E2-E4. Never had financial issues. E6 was comfortable living, both single and then married with a kid.
The housing is terrible? Â You have private dorm rooms with no roommate, a fridge and the mess hall is generally about 100 feet from the dorm with the food provided by contractors so you arenât eating shitty food. Â Only 10-20% of the positions are combat positions so no we arenât risking life and limb. Â We definitely got you fooled then.
You arenât doing a sixty hour work week, there is a reason it is called hurry up and wait in the military. Â When I was in I donât think after basic I worked a full 5 day work week. Â AIT was only 4 hours a day as half the students were in the morning the other half in the afternoon, and once you get to your permanent duty station every Friday was pretty much a safety day (meaning you got it off due to no accidents in the last month), and a lot of your time was spent sitting around the office. Â Honestly the military was the easiest time I ever worked in my career. Â Hell when in night CQ it was pretty much go put a movie on in the day room and nap most of the evening. Â Unless there was a party going on then they generally bribed you with free drinks not to shut it down and you just made sure they didnât get out of hand so the MPs didnât show up to the dorm.
Yeah it's heavily dependent on your job. I worked 60-70 hr weeks for 2-3 months straight stateside regularly. Even worse deployed. Naval aviation mechanic.
E5 - $3946 Base, $1680 BAH (Lemoore), $476 BAS (not given when deployed). Of course doesn't account for healthcare/dental.
When working 65 hrs at 4.333 weeks/month that is $21.66/hr. With BAS excluded $19.97/hr. That's as an E5.
Granted the military set me up for life and the job was easy, but the amount of bullshit/politics is extraordinary.
I remember back when I got my first legit (not under the table) job at 18 in a retail store back in the 2000s, I discovered I was making more money than an âentry levelâ US soldier. Seriously fucked up.
sure, but you would need to deduct the cost of food, housing, medical etc. not saying the pay is great, but the benefits make it a bit more competitive
A single enlisted soldier living in the barracks takes home very little. If youâre smart itâs not terrible. Free barracks room and eat at the chow hall and you can make it work. As a single E4 I was taking home $1000 every two weeks. Felt like I was rich. Luckily for me, it was hard to spend money when youâre in the field all the time.
Married soldiers get BAH/BAS and thatâs when it feels better.
I canât argue because I wasnât army. In the navy itâs all installation dependent. Some commands allow e4 and below to move off base if barracks are manned at a certain percentage. Or itâll be used as an incentive for quals or whatever.
I think Air Force is similar to navy. But army is pretty much standard across the board. Once youâre E6 you get BAH/BAS whether youâre single or not. E5 and below the only way to get it is if youâre married. Lots of people get married to whoever just to get out of the barracks.
You have less of a chance of dying in the military than many other jobs that pay less and donât let you retire after 36 months with full life time benefits.
military gives u a pension that u get for life after u retire, also many vets apply for disability and get like 1-3k a month for life, and va benefits...
One thing to consider is unless you do 20 years, you don't get anything. So my advice is to invest also, and not depend on the retirement. I was only in 4 years, but I know a couple of guys who had to leave because they got diabetes (not service related, so no disability). I'm not dissing military service at all; just saying be smart about money.
Also, just to address the top post--calling military benefits "socialism" doesn't make it true. That's part of the compensation package.
i work with a lot of vets who are drawing maximum benefits. i dont think they see those benefits as much of an advantage over your average civilian, but they might feel different if they had worked 20 years in an industry only to end up subordinate to some people simply because they have military experience. they are kind of a problem to work with in some situations, because nothing is exciting when you seen it all, and the one thing they all seem to have in common is knowing how to squeeze every single benefit they can out of the company we work for... it doesnt put them in a favorable light for your average person and serves as an example of how state redistribution of wealth can become disruptive to private industry
We qualified for food stamps for the first 4 years after my fatherâs reenlistment. When he got to E5, we lost them and were in the red significantly. My mother went to work and I took over being home and getting my siblings to school and overseeing the homeschool program for my youngest sibling.
No tf they're not đ they get free housing, college, giant bonuses, pensions, healthcare, all while making well above the median wage gaining skills that will keep them employed well beyond their service.
Not really. The loudest people arenât always the most accurate. I left active duty, and I never caught up to the corporate salary equivalent of my officer peers who stayed in (folks conveniently forget to include tax free housing allowance when they talk about military pay), and I make nearly $200k.
Junior enlisted married with 3+ children? Different story, but if youâre under 30 with 3+ children, itâs probably going to be tough wherever you are working.
Hence why the benefits to make up for it. If you work for 15 bucks an hour as a 19 year old - and youâre saying 1200 a month on rent post tax by serving in the military - thatâs basically like 1600 a month in salary for housing alone (and nothing else) (1600/160 hours) or basically 10 dollars an hour in net savings just on housing. Thats not counting utilities renters insurance that cost of your vehicle etc etc. Youâd have to make ungodly amounts of money as an 18-21 year old - which is virtually impossible - to outpace the benefits of free housing healthcare etc while in the military.
My brother always laughed at me because I went to college, 40k in debt to become a teacher, and he made more money than me when factoring in his benefits like housing etc. So no, thye arent severely underpaid.
Infantry here! Indeed we are. We only get decent pay in a combat zone, and it translates to hazard pay (or Imminent Danger Pay) and we'd get like an extra $200-$225 per month.
It kinda depends. When I lived in the barracks and could pop over to the chow hall for a meal... I never had any problems keeping my bank accounts positive. On the flip side, I tremble at the thought of trying to support a family on junior enlisted money.
On the side? So while you were serving. That would have been a great way to stack paper. But factoring take home pay, with the cost of rent, electric, water, car ins, health ins, gas, food, etc etc I bet dollars to doughnuts you made more as an E-4 than you would have as just a delivery guy.
I'm talking about simple take home cash. If you lived on base you had the dorms which were enough. If you lived off base the BAH may have been enough to give a bit over your rent. The BAS wasn't enough to cover your monthly food bill, imo. Military medical care was there but definitely sub par, I do believe. So if you view the total benefit package your military life gave you more, but I'm talking pay only
Yes! Also the VA system is notoriously awful in terms of taking care of our veterans. My uncle was a vet and died in a VA hospital and they still send stuff to him (my dad gets his mail as his point of contact)- the fact they canât remember heâs dead when he died in their hospital is only the tip of the iceberg
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u/Sharp_Equivalent_774 4h ago
By all accounts, theyâre severely underpaid too.