Comments on: British Military Base Pay Comparison

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 30 May 2008 21:29:23 +0000

A big mac is hardly a method of comparing pay. I am English and over there (I live in the US now) a packet of cigarettes is approx $11 and a gallon of gas the same. Housing prices are enormously different if you compare like for like. At a guess i would say your house prices are around 3 times cheaper (at least). And clothes are far cheaper here too. I suggest you go a little further into it than compare fast food prices, then maybe you’d be talking sense.
also in the UK ‘veterans’ do not nearly get the recognition that they get over here. We tend to take them for granted. That’s how it is.

By: Susan

Susan — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:53:27 +0000

My husband and I have discussed the pay situation in depth, and he definitely didn’t volunteer for the money. The financial hit we took this year (my husband is in the guard and his civilian pay is quite a bit more than his military pay), is something we anticipated.
He has said several times that he would not prefer higher pay. The lower pay keeps those out of service that only want to do it for the money. He would probably do it for free if he didn’t have to worry about feeding and housing me and the kids.
I do think the lower pay has a lot to do with problems retaining troops. I like your idea of taking a poll!