Report of the Fourteenth Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation , January , 2025
Report of the Fourteenth Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation , January , 2025
From the report: "Whether members of the uniformed services are receiving adequate compensation is the central issue for each Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC). For the 14th QRMC, ongoing challenges facing the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that drew the attention of senior leaders and Congress lent a sense of urgency to its deliberations—primarily because military pay was perceived as a potential solution. The 14th QRMC began its work during a period of intense recruiting challenges as multiple Services missed recruiting goals. Concerns in DoD and Congress about the levels of reported food insecurity among military personnel, especially in the junior ranks, raised questions about the adequacy of pay, despite the establishment of the Basic Needs Allowance (BNA), which aimed to improve economic security for lower paid personnel. Consequently, for more than a year, Congress has been working toward a substantial pay raise for junior enlisted troops—which culminated in a 14.5 percent increase in basic pay for grades E-1 to E-4 and a 4.5 percent across-the-board annual pay increase for the rest of the military in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 that was passed by the Congress and signed by the President as the last pages of this report were being written.
The charter provided to the 14th QRMC reflected these concerns in many ways, concentrating on fundamentals of the military compensation system. In its charter, the President directed the 14th QRMC to do the following:
• Evaluate the Regular Military Compensation (RMC) 70th-percentile benchmark and make recommendations on whether to keep the benchmark or change it.
• Review the basic pay table to ensure it allows the Department to recruit and retain the nation’s finest.
• Examine how a shift toward dual-income households and unique factors of military life such as frequent moves, separation, and childcare access might require structural changes for military compensation."
Authors - Department of DefenseRelated Resources
