Understanding Military Pay Raises and Benefits for 2005
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By SGT Michael Volkin

This article will outline a few of the most popular changes that will occur on January 1st, 2005 with regard to your military pay and benefits.

On August 5th, 2004 the Defense Appropriations Act of 2005 signed into law a 3.5 percent across the board pay raise for military personnel. Don't worry: even though military budgets run on a fiscal calendar (from 1 October to 30 September), the pay changes will take effect on January 1st, 2005. Rather than posting the pay charts in this article, they can easily be found here.

Great! A pay raise, but that's not all. The active duty personnel who live off base will also see a 6.2% increase in their basic allowance for housing (BAH) over the 2004 rates. This increase will also take effect on January 1st, 2005.

Combat Pay (a.k.a hostile fire pay) will retain its current level at $225 per month. This was actually a temporary raise (up from $150 per month) that Congress passed in 2002. It was scheduled to expire in January 2005. However, the expiration was removed and $225 per month is now a permanent level for combat pay. The same situation occurred with the family separation allowance. The temporary level of $250 per month (up from $100 per month) was set to expire the first of the year. This expiration has been removed and the $250 per month is now a permanent level.

Those military personnel that speak a language that is critical (other than English) can receive a foreign language bonus. This bonus was previously $100 per month, but now, the military is willing to pay a maximum amount of $1,000 per month for enlisted members and $6,000 per year for Reservists. Therefore, if we ever go to war with Fiji, those military personnel who speak Hindustani will be laughing all the way to the bank. Keep in mind though, I did say those were "maximum" amounts, and each branch of the military can define what a "critical" language may be.

Starting January 1, 2005, the maximum re-enlistment bonus will increased from $10,000 to $15,000. The services will also be able to award this bonus amount in a lump sum should they choose to do so. As for enlistment bonuses for reservists, those maximum amounts have increased as well from $8,000 to $10,000.

Numerous other changes that I have not mentioned will also take effect on January 1st, 2005. These changes include increases to reserve education benefits and reserve medical care to name a couple.

SGT Michael Volkin is the author of The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook, available in both paperback and e-book format at www.ultimatebasictrainingguidebook.com.


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