Virginia Pilot Article: Drake Bill Aims to Narrow Military Pay Gap
Virginia Pilot Article: Drake Bill Aims to Narrow Military Pay Gap
May 12, 2008
U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake, R-2nd District, introduced legislation last week to close what she says is a gap between military and civilian salaries.
Drake’s proposal would require that military pay raises for 2010-13 be half-a-percentage point greater than any increase in the federal employment cost index. This measurement is similar to the consumer price index, except it tracks rising wages instead of prices.
Drake is a member of the House military personnel subcommittee, which last week proposed a 3.9 percent jump in military pay for 2009, half-a-percentage point more than the projected increase in the index.
The panel has approved other raises greater than the index for each of the past nine years, but Drake says her legislation would replace those annual adjustments with a five-year guarantee to military families that their pay will increase faster than the index.
The House subcommittee estimates the gap between military pay and civilian salaries for comparable jobs at 3.4 percent. But the Bush administration’s Office of Management and Budget said last year that the long-standing gap had been closed.