A Post on Military Trending

I saw this post on Facebook and wanted to comment on it, but I plan on using more characters than Facebook will allow:

Salary of the US President ...................$400,000
Salary of retired US Presidents .............$180,000
Salary of House/Senate .......................$174,00​0
Salary of Speaker of the House ............$223,500
Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders ...... $193,400
......Average Salary of a Marine or Soldier DEPLOYED IN Afghanistan...$38,000
I think we found where the cuts should be made! If you agree...RE-POST

Now there has been a new trend for Americans over the past few years to overly appreciate our military. I want to state that this is not an attack on our military nor our government; this is my opinion on a new trend. My mom works for the VA and I love and appreciate our soldiers giving their lives to serve our country. They deserve our respect, and every time someone sees a soldier, active or retired, they should at the very least thank them.

That being said, I don't agree with this post. The purpose of it is to show that there's such a difference in salary from the average marine/soldier to certain political offices (not the people in them, just the office itself), assuming that the $38,000 figure is correct. While we're making a running list of salaries for different occupations, let's throw in some other average 2010 salaries for a few other jobs, just to get a bigger picture:

   

• Accountant: $60,000                                    
• Doctor: $180,000
• Lawyer: $129,000
• High School Teacher: $60,000
• NBA Player: $5,500,000
• NFL Player: $1,900,000
• MLB Player: $3,340,000
• Nurse: $72,000
• CEO: $422,000
• Construction Worker: $40,000
• Actor: $51,000
• Fast Food Manager: $52,000
• Secretary: $38,000
• Salesman: $35,000
• Fireman: $55,000
• Cafeteria Attendants: $19,000
• Elementary Teacher: $44,000
• Security Guard: $36,000

  

There's also something else you need to take into consideration when analyzing this. These are the averages, not starting wages. That means these numbers includes those lawyers, doctors, and accountants who have been working for 30 years and are at the top of their pay scale. It includes those teachers and construction workers who have earned raises for 15 years. The military salary (again, if it's correct) is $38,000 on day 1. If we're talking about an elementary school teaching job from day 1, it looks more like $30,000.

Pilots start out at less than $20,000. Most principals start out as administrative interns who earn less than the average teacher. And there are a lot of other jobs out there that pay extremely low to start and a lot at the end of the career, making service in the military a better financial decision than a lot of other jobs.

Now I've done payroll for a lot of different types of companies including law firms, police units, construction companies, restaurants, and sales companies. I've paid everyone from the CEO and CFO to waitresses. The benefits vary greatly from company to company, and no one can beat the benefits the U.S military offers. Here are some of them:

• Tuition - up to $50,000 for undergraduate degrees while partially supplementing for advanced degrees. Spouses receive $6,000.
• Housing - Free on-base housing & monthly housing allowance for families
• Insurance - Free medical/dental insurance for personnel and families with major discounts on life
• Vacation - 30 days paid vacation

Other benefits include traveling, training, military discounts, banking/loan rates, VA resources, job preferences (especially within institutions such as the VA), and free/discounted stuff all over the place. Over the course of 8 years, the total compensation rises enormously due to all of the benefits received.

 While I'm all for cutting the salary of our politicians, I don't think we need to raise the salary for our soldiers. It's one of the best jobs available for an entry-level worker. Name an entry-level job that offers more than this. It's also a job in that after you leave it, you and your family continue to receive military benefits the rest of your life. Most jobs that pay this much and offer this much in benefits require an advanced degree. To take someone who doesn't have any skills, training, or advanced education and start them out with this kind of pay and benefits package is very generous.

Well, Aaron, what about the soliders who get deployed over to Afghanistan? What about those who fight in wars?

First of all, our soldiers know that this is a possibility the minute they enlist in the military. That's the whole point of the military: to defend the country. That risk factor is built into their salaries. It's my understanding that if you're deployed, you also receive additional pay. And what about all of the other occupations whose lives are put in danger by the very nature of the job? Fireman ($55,000), security guard ($36,000), construction worker ($40,000). Salesman might be on this list because I know a lot of people who wouldn't mind shooting them on their doorstep. These guys are all paid about the same and they are all guarenteed to be put in dangerous situations. A lot of our military servicemen spend their entire military career in training, not ever being put in a life-or-death situation. If the argument is being made for soldiers pay to increase, it should also be made for all classifications of jobs whose lives are put in danger to protect citizens.

Again, all of this is contigent upon the fact that the post on facebook is accurate (or near it). My uncle served in the military for many years and my brother for a month until he was discharged. My mom works for the VA. Aside from some internet research, this is what I'm going off of. If anything is incorrect, please let me know.

So I'm in line for decreasing salaries for people such as politicians and greedy corporate CEO's, but that doesn't mean we should automatically increase the pay of our military.