The Department of Defense needs to reassess the way it
compensates service members, the Government Accountability
Office has said in a new report.
It said that over time DoD’s “compensation system has
become an increasingly complex and piecemeal accretion
of pays, allowances, benefits, and special tax
preferences,” that compensated active duty and enlisted
officer personnel with about $112,000 on average in
fiscal 2004.
“Adjusted for inflation, the total cost of providing
active duty compensation increased about 29 percent from
fiscal year 2000 to fiscal year 2004, from about $123 to
$158 billion,” according to GAO-05-798.
It said health care has been a major factor increasing
cost, having risen 69 percent to about $23 billion in
fiscal 2004.
The report calls on DoD to improve the transparency of
its compensation system and reassess the reasonableness,
appropriateness, affordability, and sustainability.
It says DoD leaders are concerned that rising
compensation costs may not be sustainable and could
detract from other needed investments.
Further, through surveys and focus groups GAO determined
service members “are dissatisfied and harbor
misperceptions about their pay and benefits” believing
they would earn more as civilians when, according to GAO,
they “generally earn more cash compensation alone than
70 percent of like-educated civilians.”
