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ministration, or while receiving retainer pay in the Fleet Reserve or Fleet Marine Corps Reserve) to be counted in determining basic pay while such a person is on active duty. This provision will equalize the pay of a retired person with his contemporaries, should he be returned to duty. Active service after retirement will operate, as at present, to increase both active duty pay and retirement pay up to the maximum pay for the grade.

Doctors and Dentists.-Medical and dental officers of any of the Services are included in a special pay category of the act. Previous law, granting these officers $100 a month in addition to any other pay, is continued, but changed to (1) limit this pay to those who are commissioned in the Regular Service before 1 September 1952, or who, as nonRegulars, come on active duty before that date, and (2) prohibit this special pay during service as an intern.

Foreign and sea pay are curtailed drastically. For commissioned and warrant personnel, it disappeared entirely on 30 September except for those then at sea or overseas. Previously, it was 10 and 20 percent, respectively, of base pay. For enlisted personnel, it is reduced.

The table (fig. 2 on page 6) shows the new monthly sea and foreign pay for each grade, the old pay, and the decrease.

"Saving" or protective clauses in the act, to be discussed later, will prevent any person now at sea or overseas from suffering a loss in total compensation through the curtailment or abolition of this pay. However, personnel going overseas or to sea now may receive less money, for a time, than those who were there before 1 October.

Of course, all basic and special pay (as distinguished from allowances) is subject to the Federal income tax law, just as all pay of military personnel has been since 1 January 1949.

Basic Allowances.-Important because they apply to nearly every Service person are the two basic allowances provided by the new law-subsistence allowance and quarters allowance—and the family allowance which has been repealed by the law.

Present subsistence allowances for enlisted personnel are not changed. The rates previously set administratively, within maximumns set by the old law, now are fixed by the new act. When permission to mess separately is granted, the allowance will be $1.05 a day; when rations in kind are not available, $2.25; and when the serviceman is assigned to duty under emergency conditions where no Government messing facilities are available,

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$3 a day. As previously, enlisted personnel will receive such allowances on a daily basis, and whenever they are not in fact subsisted by the Government; and they may receive such allowances, up to 3 months, in advance.

Likewise, for most married officers, the allowance is not changed appreciably. Previously, an officer without dependents received 70 cents a day; and an officer with dependents received two rations, or $1.40 a day. (Majors, most lieutenant colonels, and some senior captains with dependents received three rations.) The new law simplifies the system by converting the $1.40 ration for a 30-day month to its monthly equivalent of $42 (since officers always receive the allowance and buy their food when messed with troops), and it pays the $42 to every officer, without regard to dependency, rank, or number of days in the month.

What Increases Have Been Made in
Quarters Allowances?

What has been done to quarters allowances can be shown most clearly by a table (fig. 3, page 6), but some basic changes in entitlement require discussion first.

indicated by the estimate that, on a full-year basis, The scope of the quarters allowance changes is they will cost an added $146,000,000, of which $142,000,000 goes to enlisted persons.

This increase comes from raising the allowance for enlisted personnel from $1.25 a day, or $37.50 a month (previously payable to any man not housed by the Government and to any man in the top three grades whose dependents were not housed by the Government) to $45 a month for the man not Government-housed and to $67.50 for the upper grades whose dependents are not quartered. Moreover, included among the top graders entitled to $67.50 if dependents are not housed are men in pay grade E-4 (Army corporals, Air and Marine sergeants, and Navy petty officers third class) who have 7 or more years' service.

Men in E-4 with less than 7 years' service, together with men in E-3 and below, are considered as without dependents at all times so far as quarters allowance is concerned.

"Dependents" include a lawful wife, unmarried legitimate children under age 21, and father or mother, if in fact dependent on the Service person for over half of his or her support and if actually residing in the serviceman's household. Also included are unmarried legitimate children over age 21 who are incapable of self-support because of mental or physical incapacity and who in fact are

dependent for over half of their support. This last inclusion, and the requirement that parents dwell with the Service person, are new provisions. Other definitions of dependents are picked up from present law in general.

Quarters allowance will not be paid to persons eligible for quarters if the Government already is providing them with quarters suitable to their rank and number of dependents.

How Will Family Allowances Be
Terminated?

The family allowance law, which is being abolished, is understood pretty well by everyone. It consists of a payment by the serviceman ($22 if he has dependents of one class; $27 if he has dependents of two classes)—and a tax-free contribution by the Government-the combined sums going to wives, children, parents, brothers, and sisters. If a serviceman drawing family allowances is assigned quarters for his family also, he pays 90 cents rent a day, or $27 for a 30-day month.

This law was due to expire by its own terms six months after the yet-undeclared end of the war. Everyone knew that the allowances had to go sometime, and that persons with dependents then would have to assume full responsibility for their support. The big question-and one of the knottiest problems facing the drafters of the pay lawwas how and when to "stage out" the allowances. The House Committee decided to repeal the allowance law, not in 6 months, but at once, and then to save or protect certain total compensation for certain periods. This provision prevented piling pay increases on top of allowances and the entering of new allowances during a 6-month period; it protected the most deserving allowance cases. It prevented a serviceman from suffering any loss if his family allowance were cut off immediately.

This approach met the overwhelming approval of the House and was accepted by the Senate without change.

Every Service person who began an enlistment before 1 October 1949 will be protected against any cut in the total compensation he and his family were receiving for his service on 30 September.

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And on 1 July 1952-or after end of current enlistment if that comes sooner- -the total compensation protected will not include any allowances. All protections expire.

Thus, all allowances are continued for a time, if the serviceman would suffer a loss in total compensation from losing the allowances. But he cannot get an increase in 30 September total compensation as long as any part of the family allowance would be responsible for part of the increase; and if his family occupies Government quarters, while drawing family allowances, his pay will be reduced by $67.50.

In any event, the total pay of 30 September which is protected does not include any such temporary earnings as travel or transportation allowances, per diem and station allowances, court stenographers' pay, or enlistment allowances.

Nor is any item of pay, such as foreign pay or glider pay, protected after the serviceman ceases to qualify for it. A man overseas, for example, whose oversea pay cut is greater than his base pay increase, continues to receive 30 September pay only until he returns to the States.

Despite the protecting of allowances, if any enlisted person who was on duty 1 October is going to suffer a loss in total pay compared with his 30 September status (excluding the temporary travel, stenographer, and enlistment bonus earnings just mentioned, but including his family allowances) he may be discharged if he applies by 30 September 1950.

The net gains for enlisted men in quarters money often will exceed their losses in allowances, for the new $67.50 quarters allowance plus the basic pay increases exceed the $78 Government contribution for a wife and two children. They often exceed the $98 contribution for a wife and three children. Looking at net gains for enlisted personnel as a whole, more than 142 million dollars additional in quarters allowances will be paid in the first 12 months under the new law, while family allowance payments in that period will be reduced by 133 million dollars.

What Is the General Saving Clause?

Since the general saving or protective clause is like the family allowance saving clause in many respects, this is a proper place to describe it. provides that

It

1. No person who was on active duty on 1 October 1949, and continues on active duty shall suffer, because of the act, any reduction in the total

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Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy

(Distribution of warrant officers among the four pay brackets will be made by each Service Secretary.)

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compensation he was entitled to receive on 30

September 1949.

2. This protection period lasts until 1 July 1952,

or until the person becomes entitled to receive more

than he was receiving on 30 September. For an

enlisted person, it lasts throughout the period if

he re-enlists within 3 months of discharge.

3. The total compensation protected, as under

the family allowance saving clause, does not in-

clude items for which a Service person ceases to

qualify, or temporary pays he may have received

on 30 September.

What Has Been Done to
Enlistment Allowances?

A basic change has been made in the enlistment
allowance system. Instead of paying, on re-enlist-
ment, $50 for each year in the previous enlistment,
allowance will be given for the number of years
signed up for. If a 2-year enlistment is entered
into, $40 will be paid; for a 3-year enlistment, $90;
for a 4-year enlistment, $160; for a 5-year enlist-
ment, $250; and for a 6-year enlistment, $360. For
enlistment for an indefinite time, the $360 payable
for a 6-year "hitch” will be given, and each year
after the sixth year, an additional $60 will be paid
until the total reaches $1,440.

No enlistment bonus will be paid for more than four enlistments entered into after 1 October. Furthermore, servicemen nearing 30 years of active service, may receive only the amount which would be payable if the enlistment were for the number of years required to bring the total to 30. Nothing in the law itself makes similar provision if a serviceman is nearing the 20-year retirement period, or if he does not serve out the period for which he signs and is paid. The law does intend, however, that only indefinite enlistees who serve more than 6 years will get the entire $360.

Congress recognized that to change the enlistment bonus plan in the manner just outlined would be unfair to those who, say, had formed the "3-year habit" and were expecting to receive $150 upon signing up the next time. Accordingly, the law provides that a serviceman who re-enlists within 3 months after discharge from an enlistment in effect on the date of the law's enactment or re-enlists within 3 months after relief from duty as an officer or warrant officer (if commissioned or warrant status was entered on from enlisted status before the date of the law's enactment) may choose the allowance he would get under the old law or under the new law, whichever is greater. He cannot receive more than $300 under the old law, however, regardless of length of previous enlistment.

Congress also provided that if an enlistment entered into under the new law is extended, $20 will be paid for each year of the extension, subject to the general ceiling of four bonuses not exceeding $1,440. An enlistment in a Regular Service following (1) compulsory or voluntary active duty in that Service or (2) extended active duty of a year or more in a Reserve component of that Service, is a re-enlistment for purposes of the bonus.

Is Enlistment Furlough
Allowance Continued?

The enlistment furlough allowance is in a peculiar status. It is abolished-but on 1 January 1950 instead of 1 October 1949. In this respect, it is in the same situation as most of the other travel and transportation laws repealed or amended by the new act. The 1 January repeal date is intended to give the Services time to write new travel regulations.

On 30 September, such extra pays as the following were terminated:

1. Pay for infantry or medical badges or for certain decorations.

2. The extra pay of Army and Air Force court reporters and stenographers, of Marine cooks, of mounted officers, and of officer aides.

3. The long-suspended double-enlistment bonus which Navy and Marine Corps personnel could obtain if they re-enlisted within 24 hours. What Changes Have Been Made in Hazard Pay?

The principal change in hazard-incentive pay has been the placing of flying and submarine pay on a flat rate for each grade. (Flying and submarine pay were previously 50 percent of total pay, and increased with grade, longevity, and foreign service.) The flat rate basis already exists for parachute pay, while glider pay previously combined flat rate and percentages. Glider and parachute duty, explosive demolition work, regular flying not as a crew member, and training activities at the Navy Deep Sea Diving School or Experimental Diving Unit or at a submarine escape training tank now may be compensated for at the rate of not more than $100 a month for officers and $50 for enlisted persons. Diving pay laws are not changed.

The monthly pay for crew members involving regular and frequent participation in aerial flight and for duty aboard a submarine is shown in the table (fig. 4, page 7).

The President is given authority to suspend any type of hazard-incentive pay in time of war. How Have Physical Retirement Provisions Been Changed?

The provisions of the act which affect physical retirement become less difficult to understand if each is considered separately. The intention behind all the changes is to treat commissioned and enlisted persons, Regular and non-Regular, on the same basis; to relate the pay given to the degree of disability or the length of service so that grievously disabled persons of any status receive proper compensation, while persons of little service and minor disabilities receive correspondingly lesser

pay.

All personnel subject to physical retirement fall into one of three groups. These are (1) Regulars, and non-Regulars, called or ordered to active duty for 30 days or more, who have less than 8 years of service; (2) Regulars, and non-Regulars, called or ordered to active duty for 30 days or more, who have completed 8 years' service; (3) non-Regulars ordered to active duty, including training duty, for 30 days or less.

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