While most of our enlisted military did not join for the money, we should be paying our enlisted men and women well enough to keep them re-upping, and commensurate with their service.
Military pay has gone up a lot since I was an E-4 in the USAF, back in 1969, getting $256/mo, plus a barracks bed, and locker, and three mess hall meals.
It's still not high enough for a man to successfully raise a family on. It should be.
An E-4 in the military really doesn't have any business keeping a family. An NCO yeah, but junior enlisted with dependents in tow are a drag on the rest of the junior enlisted. I speak as a guy who always got rousted for details while the off post E-3s got their weekends free.
Just my opinion.