washingtonscene
if the remarriage subsequently ends in death or divorce, just as the VA already restores Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs coverage for survivors in similar circumstances whose original spouse died of service-connected causes.
Active and Reserve Force Issues
Operations and manpower
MOAA will aim to sustain military man- power levels needed to match service mis- sions, ease deployment rates, and improve quality of life, retention, and readiness. Cur- rent operating tempos are easing, but bud- get-driven, end-strength reductions might cut end strength too deeply to meet national security interests. Adequate manpower lev- els and resources for recruiting, retention, training, and family support are essential.
Guard/Reserve retirement
Guard and Reserve families cannot be indefinitely burdened with irreconcilable trade-offs between civilian employment, personal retirement planning, and family obligations. Operational Reserve policy requires reservists to serve one of every five years on active duty, though many al- ready have served multiple combat tours equal to active force deployment cycles. Regardless of reemployment protections, periodic long-term absences from the civilian workplace can only limit these servicemembers’ upward mobility and employability, as well as personal finan- cial security. The new hybrid retirement plan (for service entrants on or after Jan. 1, 2018), composed of reduced retired pay and a matched 401(k)-style system, will require robust financial education of all servicemembers, including guardmem- bers and reservists, to protect their re- tirement interests.
46 MILITARY OFFICER JANUARY 2017 Compensation comparability
Between 2000 and 2010, Congress made great progress toward restoring military pay comparability with that of the private sector. For most of the 1980s and ’90s, the executive and legislative branches capped military pay raises below those of the pri- vate sector. As a result, the pay gap grew as large as 13.5 percent, causing a retention and readiness crisis. Subsequently, execu- tive and legislative branch leaders worked to make up that deficit over a decade, and comparability was restored as of 2010. Dur- ing that process, Congress specified in law the annual military pay raise should match private-sector pay growth, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index (ECI), except during periods of “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare,” as determined by the president. Starting in 2014, budget constraints led
the president to exercise his alternative pay raise authority, and military raises were capped at least 0.8 percentage points below the ECI each year from 2014-16. For 2017, the president again proposed capping the military pay raise at 1.6 per- cent, half a percentage point below the ECI. However, the House proposed a full-ECI 2.1-percent raise in its version of the FY 2017 Defense Authorization Bill, and that proposal made it into the final bill. If it passes the Senate (which had not yet occurred as of press time) and is signed by the president, the 2.1-percent raise will prevail. MOAA keeps track of that cumula-
tive pay-raise gap. If the 1.6-percent pay raise remains, that running gap will reach 3.1 percent for 2017. Additionally, the Bu- reau of Labor Statistics recently announced the ECI had increased 2.4 percent for the 12-month period as of September 2016. By law, this becomes the default military pay raise for 2018, unless the president proposes
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