The proposed 2011 raise would match the projected
increase in the Employment Cost Index, a Labor Department measurement of
private-sector wage growth. For 11 consecutive years, including this
year, Congress set annual military raises half a percentage point above
the increase in the ECI in order to whittle a perceived gap between
average military and private-sector pay that supposedly has existed
since 1982 and peaked in 1999.
If approved by Congress, it would be the smallest annual military pay
raise since the birth of the all-volunteer force in 1973, a reflection
of the lingering recession’s dampening effect on wage growth and living
costs. The next-smallest raise in the volunteer era was a 2 percent
increase in 1988.
In contrast, the pay raise for this year, which took effect Jan. 1, was
a robust 3.4 percent.
Note: The amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.
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