Military Pay: How A Government Shutdown Affects The Army

As Congress continues its race against the government shutdown clock, one of the key questions surrounding the looming standoff is military pay for the American troops currently fighting three wars.

As Defense Secretary Robert Gates put it during a recent Q & A session in Baghdad, the government should "pay the guys with guns first."

So while compensating military members is unquestionably a priority, according to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) the "Department of Defense will have no legal authority to pay military members or civilian employees for the days during which the government is shut down."

With that in mind, here's a quick explainer on how army personnel will be affected by a potential shutdown.

1. Military personnel
Although military personnel will still be required to report for duty, a government shutdown would, at least temporarily, halt or stagger scheduled payments, according to the DFAS. Once the dust has settled and an agreement is reached, active military members will be compensated for duty performed during the shutdown.

"If the government shuts down starts on the 8th and goes for a week, you’d get a half a check," Gates told the troops. "If it goes from the 15th to the 30th, you wouldn’t get a pay check on the 30th but you would be back paid for all of it. So that’s the deal"

2. Civilian employees
According to the DFAS, civilians employed by the military will be compensated for days worked through April 8. Pay will resume once an agreement is reached.

3. Retired military veterans
Retired military servicemen and women are not paid through the current Continuing Resolution Act, so their compensation and benefits will not be affected should a government shutdown go into effect.

4. Government contractors
Military contractors will continue to be paid depending on terms, funding and the necessary tasks.

Comments

[Sam my antha]

01:37 PM on 04/10/2011

While congress is cutting our pay for the 15th, are they cutting their own?

[LegendOfTheBrave]

10:06 PM on 04/08/2011

Debt-GDP Ratio

Bush Years - 56-69%

Obama Years - 84-94%

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_debt_chart.html

[Breth]

11:31 PM on 04/08/2011

Where that debt came from (See figure 1):

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3036

[mike dougles]

11:46 PM on 04/08/2011

What Obama and the dems have done to fix the debt. ZERO.

[hlk46]

09:36 PM on 04/08/2011

Military contractors continue to get paid, but the soldiers themselves have to do without? There is something horribly wrong with this scenario.

[Tyler Brainerd]

12:33 AM on 04/09/2011

the implication being that the contractors are paid based on need, and will thus not likely be contracted for anything until there is a resolution.

[bob pistrami]

07:47 PM on 04/08/2011

obama reinstates slavery. what else do you call it when a soldier has to report to work for no pay under penalty of imprisonment. go figure

[Jimi Wilson]

08:44 PM on 04/08/2011

So Obama is responsible for the shutdown that Republican congressmen are forcing on the country?

[mike dougles]

11:47 PM on 04/08/2011

It would have been nice if the dems had done their job and passed a budget last year.

[Edward Standley]

07:41 PM on 04/08/2011

And the GOP "Big Tent" shrinks a bit more. Women, military members. Is there anybody left?

[Demarcus Jackson]

07:15 PM on 04/08/2011

This is it, American People: The Regressives will sink this nation if we do not stop them.

[Demarcus Jackson]

07:14 PM on 04/08/2011

"...half a check..." Soldiers barely get paid anything now. http://www.ehow.com/info_7751203_average-army-salary.html

[Edward Standley]

07:40 PM on 04/08/2011

Hey, there are always the "payday lenders" that surround military bases like cockroaches. Republicans in Congress have always fought against usury laws that would bring them under control. I'm sure soldiers and sailors really appreciate that.

[Sam my antha]

01:39 PM on 04/10/2011

And for the people that are deployed right now and don't have payday lenders around them but yet still have bills... what are they suppose to do?

[Jambala99]

06:10 PM on 04/08/2011

Yep, my buddy just got his check and it was exactly HALF of what it should have been.

Repugs should have passed the "HR 1297, the Ensuring Pay for Our Military Act introduced back on March 31 by Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)"

This would have funded the Military without ALL of the GOP riders attached.........

It's GOP's funeral........

[Tom95134]

05:56 PM on 04/08/2011

You always keep paying the guys with the guns.

[Msdee26]

05:26 PM on 04/08/2011

I'm so sick of people blaming everything on obama HE CAN"T DO ANYTHING without the congress signing it 1st so stop blaming him for everything and blame the congress. If you ask me they should cut the congress salary after all they getting paid for doing nothing.

[amh28]

04:43 PM on 04/08/2011

Wow . . . .pretty amazing way to go Obama I didn’t think you could F**k this country up anymore then you already have. I’m pretty sure we have a bad president and our government is screwed up! Let’s not pay the people who protect us! I think that the whole military should just drop everything a not do anything until they start getting paid again.

[JoeBlough]

06:40 PM on 04/08/2011

Maybe it's time they get a worthwhile job?

[Randy Young]

06:59 PM on 04/08/2011

i do have a worth while job with amaizing benifits less than 1 percent of american people i have enough balls to put there self in the line of fire for the people that live in this countries safety and yes that incudes you! now our concerns are for us lower enlisted soldiers like my self who have families to provide for and live check to check how am i supposed to put food on the table with no money, pay my bills with no money, but we have to still report to duty bullshit pay us so we can support the number one thing in alot of soldiers lifes and that is there families

[Michelle Holbert]

03:42 PM on 04/08/2011

My son is being stationed in South Korea on May 20th. He is in Fort Rucker finishing up his AIT and about to graduate April 29th. This probably means I won't be able to see him before he has to go to South Korea! This hurts so bad! I am glad he is single and only has to support himself and saves all his money, except buying the things he needs. He will sure need it, not knowing for sure how long this will last! People in the White House need to fall on there faces and call on God in this time of despair! Not Allah, Mr. Obama. He's a dead God and can't help us out in this trouble!

[babyruth]

04:33 PM on 04/08/2011

I don't understand your last comment. What are you referring to?...that Obama is a muslim? The problem with the White House is the tea party that wants to defund Planned Parenthood. This is an attack on women's health care. Maybe your son shouldn't be in the military with an attitude like yours.

[thepoliticalcat]

05:16 PM on 04/08/2011

Look, I can see why you're upset. But lying about the President isn't going to help. Why not *do* something for your son, instead of this god-bothering stuff? You might have noticed that god is not very helpful to his believers. You'd be better off finding out who sits on the Armed Forces committee in Congress and pressuring them and Mr. Boehner to get something solid done for the troops.

[Michelle Holbert]

12:09 AM on 04/09/2011

Lying about the President? Not sure where you came up with that one. I understand there are closed minded people like yourself that don't want to hear about Jesus Christ. God answers prayers, as you can see there will be no Gov. shutdown now. A time is coming that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!!

[kcin]

03:36 PM on 04/08/2011

So we pay our privatized soldiers who work for companies like Blackwater (or whatever it is called today) but we don't pay our own soldiers?

Good grief!

[Hoosierbrad]

04:21 PM on 04/08/2011

Sometimes I really think we have our heads stuck up our asses. After hearing this, I think it is confirmed.

[babyruth]

04:38 PM on 04/08/2011

Doing away with Blackwater could really help our budget problems! We have trained soliders to do their jobs and would save the taxpayers a whole lot of money!!!

[Honey Kintzler]

03:28 PM on 04/08/2011

My daughter's husband is getting ready to deploy into a hot zone and his pay check before the shut down has been cut in half along with many of his comrades. They all now cannot go home to see their families before they deploy which in many cases is thousands of miles away from where they are stationed. So the next time they see their family would be mid tour leave, if they make it that far.

Our government sucks! These young men and women risk their lives for us and what do they get for it a slap in the face saying you don't diserve to get paid. Just wrong, on so many levels!!!

[DebH444]

04:31 PM on 04/08/2011

My daughters husband leaves next week for hot zone as well. She is left alone with four children.Now she has the burden of trying to make ends meet with half the pay as well as the worries of her husband in combat.I wonder what the government leaders would do if they were in her position?How about they loose half their pay!

[thepoliticalcat]

05:10 PM on 04/08/2011

I wish we could suspend their pay for the LOT of them! Problem is, most of them are millionaires and billionaires. Look at John McCain. He gets 100% disability pay from the Navy. There's a ton of vets out there who can't even get 10% disability after losing a leg or an eye, but that yoick takes home 100% (which raises the question of why someone THAT disabled is working at all). Cut off his Navy pension, and he still takes home some $400,000 PA, not including his wife's annual income, which runs to $6 MILLION. Even if his pay AND his disability checks are held up, he's not going to be living on baked beans and rice, know what I mean? You can buy a lot of filet mignon for $400K a year.

[Sharon TindleyChappell]

08:23 PM on 04/08/2011

I am military active duty wife. And I understand how people can be upset, however, the lies about already getting only half "IS A LIE", we get paid on the 1st and 15th for EVERYONE. My father is a veteran, my son is active duty and so is my husband. We have already received on IF they don't pass a budget, so your son (and we don't have comrades) couldn't have possibly already gotten only half.... This is serious, and we don't need fire fanners, or fear mongers !!! No disrespect, but please people, this is about the third post I have read with the already half pay lie.