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GAO-10-561R 1 (2010-04-01)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaanru0001 and id is 1 raw text is: i G GGAO Accountabihly I Integrity * Relabiity United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 April 1, 2010 Congressional Committees Subject: Military Personnel: Military and Civilian Pay Comparisons Present Challenges and Are One of Many Tools in Assessing Compensation The Department of Defense's (DOD) military compensation package, which is a myriad of pays and benefits, is an important tool to attract and retain the number and quality of active duty servicemembers it needs to fulfill its mission. Compensation can be appropriate and adequate to attract and retain servicemembers when it is competitive with civilian compensation. However, comparisons between military and civilian compensation present both limitations and challenges. As we noted in 1986, exact compensation comparisons are not possible because no data exist which would allow an exact comparison of military and civilian personnel with the same levels of work experience.' Also, nonmonetary considerations complicate military and civilian pay comparisons because their value cannot be quantified. Specifically, military service is unique in that the working conditions for active duty service carry the risk of death and injury during wartime and the potential for frequent, long deployments unlike most civilian jobs. Additionally, there is variability among past studies in how compensation is defined (e.g., pay or pay and benefits) and what is being compared. Most studies, including those done by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and RAND Corporation (RAND), have compared military and civilian compensation but limited the comparison to cash compensation- using what DOD calls regular military compensation-and did not include benefits.2 DOD also has done studies comparing military and civilian compensation as part of its Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC)-a review required by law, every 4 years, of the principles and concepts of the compensation system for members of the uniformed services.3 The 2008 QRMC (the 10h) focused its attention on seven compensation-related areas, including the adequacy of compensation, and recommended, among other things, including both cash and some benefits, for example health care, when assessing military compensation. As a result, the DOD-sponsored review found that military compensation compares approximately with the 80th percentile of comparable civilian compensation (i.e., that 80 percent of the comparable civilian population made less than the 'GAO, Military Compensation: Comparisons with Civilian Compensation and Related Issues, NSIAD-86-131BR (Washington, D.C.: June 5,1986). 2Regular military compensation is the sum of basic pay, allowances for housing and subsistence, and the federal income tax advantage-which is the value a servicemember receives from not paying federal income tax on allowances for housing and subsistence. It was initially constructed by the Gorham Commission in 1962 as a rough yardstick to be used to compare military and civilian-sector pay. 337 U.S.C. §1008. GAO-10-561R Military Compensation Page I

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