Many people are curious about military pay. The men and women who serve our country are truly selfless, but no one can deny that monetary compensation is still important to consider because you need to know how much you’ll have to live off of. This can affect the house you get, the food you buy, if you let your kids join sports teams, and the list goes on. Find out how you'll be compensated for your service.

Military Basic Pay

The compensation a person receives includes more than just money. Listing and explaining every benefit and service military personnel get would take several pages. The biggest portion (and the part people are probably the most interested in) is basic pay. Basic pay is the base amount of money each military member gets, and it’s distributed bimonthly on the 1st and the 15th.

Understanding the Army pay chart really isn’t too difficult. It’s formatted using rank and amount of service time. It’s split into two major categories of rank: enlisted and officer. The rank code is the same from branch to branch but titles vary. If you don’t already know, the codes range from E-1 to E-9 and O-1 to O-9, depending on what level of promotion a military member is at.

The basic pay actually doesn’t vary from branch to branch. No matter which branch of the military you’re looking at, they all receive the same basic pay, meaning someone in the navy can look at the same official chart as someone in the Army. You can find many of these charts on various sites, and they will show you what the monthly pay is for the rankings and lengths of service for anyone in any branch. Some even show money allowance for clothing and similar items.

So Many Military Benefits!

Military pay is made up of more than just basic pay. The Army is specifically predicted to offer the average active duty member up to about $99,000 altogether in compensation. More than half of this isn’t cash and includes everything from medical insurance to special housing programs through the VA. This sounds very attractive to many people who are considering joining the Army. Any variance you’re going to see between branches is going to come from these added benefits, many of which depend on an individual situation. Some members of the national guard, for example, receive special pay for an overseas extension, hardship, flight duties, hostile fire and imminent danger, diving duty, and much more. The list is quite long for circumstances that warrant special pay and each of these even includes more details to understand what acts really count towards special pay.

Out of all these benefits, the one we deal with specifically is the VA loan (for purchasing and refinance), which is offered to all retired or active military personnel. Beyond this, there are more things to consider that might make one branch more financially appealing than another. However, even these benefits are more or less the same across the military. The most variance you’re going to see is between rankings and service time. To see how these compare, check out the military pay chart. Download the chart, and discover the kind of future a military career offers you!

Information for this article was gathered from the US Army website.