Troops to Get Smaller Raise Than Last Year Under New Proposal

The Pentagon is planning to increase the pay for members of the uniformed military by 1 percent for 2014, down from the 1.7 percent increase for 2013, according to an article in Government Executive.

Defense Department spokesman George Little said the smaller pay raise was part of a larger reduction in defense spending.

From the Government Executive article,

At a briefing with reporters Wednesday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, “no one is getting a pay cut, but we will provide a pay raise that’s smaller than we’ve seen in past years in order to achieve some savings by virtue of what we confront in the compensation area.”

Panetta noted that military personnel costs have gone up by 80 percent since 2003, and said the department must slow the growth or be forced to steeply cut the size of the force. He also noted that Congress has approved a commission to look into trimming military retirement benefits.

Read the full article at Government Executive.