Posted on 09/06/2022 7:11:14 PM PDT by NautiNurse
Enlisted airmen who work in some of the Air Force's most difficult jobs will receive from $900 to $5,400 less annually beginning next month as the service faces financial challenges that affect the ranks.
Hundreds of service members will see cuts to their Special Duty Assignment Pay, known as SDAP, in fiscal 2023 -- which starts Oct. 1. Those monthly payments, ranging from $75 to $450, were an extra incentive "to compensate enlisted service members who serve in duties which are extremely difficult," according to budget documents.
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To avoid the cuts, lawmakers would have to reinstate the Special Duty Assignment Pay difference in the 2023 budget proposal before it's approved by Congress...
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Air Force Recruiters are set to lose their $75 in special duty pay each month for fiscal 2023, which would add up to nearly $900 a year in lost wages.
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(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
Actually there is a definition in the excerpt above...
“were an extra incentive “to compensate enlisted service members who serve in duties which are extremely difficult,””
So what duties are “extremely difficult” if not wartime? And do they still have those same duties? Is the difficulty the same?
You are correct. These are AF career fields that are hard to fill or retain.
The second paragraph of the article describes “Special Duty.” If reading is a problem, there is an app in the article allowing you to listen to it.
Thank you.
It gets worse...
Inflation Catches the Pentagon Flat-Footed
By using rosy assumptions about prices, officials have ended up hurting both readiness and troops.
...Since January 2021, service members will have received a 3% raise (2021), a 2.7% raise (2022), and a 4.6% raise (2023 projected)âbut none of these will let them clear inflation. Uniformed personnel are facing a real pay cut of 12.5% by our estimate.
The Pentagon did all this over the protestations of Congress. Knowing the Defense Department was misjudging inflation, all four defense committees on Capitol Hill were left to estimate their own inflation numbers. When Congress asked how it could help the military cope with inflation, Pentagon leaders said no financial help was needed.
When I was in the USN, I got extra pay each month for working on the Flight Deck. It wasn’t much, but when your base salary is about $4500 a year, you take what you can get.
Good find. Thanks for sharing the link.
Yea, thank you for your service and screw you is what they really mean.
hazardous duty pay next???
We could call them airheads instead.
This seems a fairly accurate picture of the cause for a top heavy armed forces being spun in all sorts of hapless directions. Too many general/flag officers not enough effective, focused leadership...
The Military deserve the very best of everything!
Especially now, with inflation at 40 year highs, this is disgustingly bad.
Hey, gotta pay for all the benefits for Dumbo’s illegal criminal invaders—to heck with the military who defend our nation (if they can squeeze in time to do so between CRT lectures, transgender propaganda lectures, sex change surgery and ballet lessons insisted upon by Milley Vanilli and the jerk Austen).
Sounds like an AF budgeting problem, not a “need more freshly printed money from Congress” problem: “Air Force Headquarters held a meeting this past November to address the problem prior to crafting the 2023 budget, Falls told Military.com.”
Perhaps fewer AF equipment shipments (i.e. “Ghost drones” & “Switchblade drones”) to Ukraine might help.
Other DoD branches not having the same budget problem?
I was an air traffic control supervisor, in from 67 to 87. For several years, we got pro pay ($75 a month) There were VERY FEW career fields that got anything extra. In 1975, they took it away from us, so we got paid the same as the guy passing out basketballs at the gym, and more people knew him, than knew me. In exchange for that, they gave us ATC badges to wear. We were less than impressed. In actuality, it was a coincidence, but the troops perceived it differently, and the perception is more important than the reality. We never got it back.
I didnât even know other people were getting extra cash, so this has happened before. Itâs not new. This was why I told my son, not to go in as an enlisted man. There are too many inequities. He took my advice and is a commissioned officer, and a USAF pilot.
I wouldnât recommend anyone being enlisted today, but itâs mostly due to wokeness.
no, It’s skypeoples.
These are all enlisted people. No enlisted people will ever fly F-15s, only officers. Now, there was, and maybe to a certain point, still is, a pilot shortage, so they let a few enlisted people go to pilot training. My son went to pilot training with a few Techâs, Masterâs and Seniorâs. I think the enlisted pilots, were only going to âflyâ the MQ-4 Global Hawk. I think they could actually fly the aircraft, if need be, but I think the aircraft is programmed to fly a certain route, and all the enlisted pilots do, is monitor it. My son says, as far as he knows, the enlisted pilots are being phased out, and are being replaced with officers.
Thatâs exactly what they are doing. It causes lots of hate and discontent among the troops.
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