Last week I wrote a diary entitled "I'm in the military and I am overpaid." Extensive comments to the diary scolded me for insensitivity to the situation of junior enlisted service members. There was a point to that critique, so this diary is about taking a look at the compensation of our most junior enlisted members.
One of the things I've always liked about the military, frankly, is the pay balance between high and low. While the admirals and generals live better than the seamen and privates, the ratio of pay between the highest and lowest paid, in terms of basic compensation, is just a little under 10 (15,125.10 for an O-10 compared to 1531.50 for a recruit). There are few large corporations where that's the case, and I wish more of our society were compensated in that way. Also, some allowances like Basic Allowance for Subsistence, or BAS, are awarded without respect to rank.
For the purposes of this diary, I'm going to take a look at the compensation of a junior enlisted person, specifically, an E-2. This is a military member just out of boot camp, ready to begin his or her first assignment. While this member's basic pay is the same as any other E-2's, the individual's housing allowance is dependent on location and marital status. Consequently, I'm going to select the location that offers the very lowest basic allowance for housing, or BAH, in the country, which turns out to be Klamath Falls, OR 97601. In addition, I'm going to assume that this person has a spouse and one child, under the reasoning that policy doesn't permit the recruiting of people with more than two dependents.
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