RE: military overcompensation

[SMEAC]

Originally Posted by Lubaolong

I think when I was a student and running a large lab at my first university, I was paid whatever minimum wage was at the time.. $4.25/hour? I don't remember.

So you were totally responsible for said lab, you were in charge of at least a couple four man teams?

Luba you are so bitter and full of shit.

Most Sergeants are lucky to make $50,000, are responsible for more and did more than you ever did in you six years in the Air Force and even what you do now.

[Lubaolong]

Originally Posted by USAMMAFAN

dude if it is such a sweet deal, then what are you waiting for?

It is a very sweet deal, and I have been struggling with this decision the last several months. After being contacted about reenlisting, I actually talked to a recruiter about going back in as an officer. The only problem is the constant restationing and my wife wouldn't be able to mantain a steady job if we moved every few years. After crunching the numbers, even if we both only make the average salaries, I think it will be best for us to both do engineering jobs. I have high hopes of landing a job for a US company in China or Taiwan and making bank. My wife's uncle is a high up in management in IBM, and I think he might be able to help us a little with this. Again, this is a risk. After the hard work, we might end up making less in our career. But after considering the possible gains, less dumbasses, and more freedom, it is a risk I am willing to take.

[Lubaolong]

Originally Posted by SMEAC

Uh, Colonels have to have at least their masters, are responsible for at least a thousand personnel, millions if not billions in equipment, have foreign relations experience, and most end up with political experience.

I'm fully aware of this. I was in the military. I know all about officers with their useless degrees and their online complete your MBA or whatever else degree in 12 months. Many online 'military friendly' colleges accept tons of credits for your military training and offer classes whenever you have time to take them and mail you out a diploma. I finished 3 such useless degrees from accredited schools.

Edit: I also had a coworker that finished his bachelors at age 19. Excelsior, a 'military friendly' accredited university, accepts 60 credits from our military school, plus an additional 25 for him for testing in another language. 85 credits, almost 3 years of college, by age 18. The remaining 30 some basic credits he needed was completed with 11(?) free CLEP and DANTES tests, study material readily provided, averaging one test per week. Shortly after turning 19, with never stepping foot inside a college, he had a college diploma. That is how easy it is from one of these schools.

[Lubaolong]

Regardless of how important that looks, I will admit I was vastly overpaid for my duties and responsibilities. A janitor can call himself a custodial engineer and say he is in charge of 72 waste extraction systems valued at $1 million dollars, but he is still a lowly toilet scrubber.

[SMEAC]

Originally Posted by Lubaolong

I'm sure most seargents average $45-50k a year, regardless of job or location. I doubt many have more responsibilities than I did. I was the best and sat an E-7 position as an E-5.

From my resume:
Directed production efforts of 66 personel, employing 16 computerized communications systems valued at over $17 million to satisfy U.S. Pacific Command and national requirements. Managed unit's communications systems accumulation, processing, and transcription effort to satisfy Kunia Regional Security Operations Center (KRSOC) objectives.
• Established workloads, monitored mission activity, and implemented mission adjustments to enhance productivity.
• Ensured adherence to operating instructions governing acquisition, recording, and forwarding of voice communications.
• Performed spot and in-depth analysis to satisfy time-sensitive reporting requirements.
• Analyzed work centers' production statistics to detect trends and appraise performance.
• Developed and monitored training programs to meet position qualification and manning requirements.

About what I do now? In your dreams.

As long as you're sure then it makes it true.

Since you were the best why aren't you still there?

Truth is you didn't do shit, and a Specialist acting as a team leader has more responsibility and implications to his job than you did. All the while he is getting paid jack shit.

You can keep using all the COLA and bonus pays and make people sound like they get promoted every six months, since you are bitter you couldn't hack it somehow.

[Mens Rea**]

Originally Posted by Lubaolong

The point is military members shouldn't whine and complain about what society owes them. They are getting far more than they are worth.

It would be no different than a janitor that cleans the office of a college professor that bitches about only getting 2x the professor's salary. DUDE you are already getting more than you deserve.

I've never heard a military guy whine about the money. I drove a taxi on NOB for months and those guys never complained about pay. They bitched about politics, their bosses, girlfriends, families, getting in trouble for nothing, and even the cost of cab fares, but never about pay. I've never heard it. Well, maybe they said it and I just ignored it but I do not, for the life of me, ever remember hearing a military guy bitch about pay or what society owes them.

[RaposaBJJ]

Originally Posted by Lubaolong

I did join the military. I was in the military 6 years and me and coworkers were making like $90k a year when I seperated. What's fair about that when there are people with advanced degrees.. doctorate degrees.. that are earning less than high school graduates with a few months of job training?

This was in response to the thread about military members thinking society owes them something. Their work is already more than compensated for.

Not only is this thread shit, but your post already tells me volumes about you and your unit. COWORKERS? WHO THE FUCK REFERS TO THE FELLOW SOLDIERS IN THEIR UNIT AS "coworkers"?

[Gregster]

Originally Posted by Lubaolong

There's nothing wrong with being in the military. It is a noble job. The pay and compensation is just too much.

Compare Joe that joins the military at 18 to Timmy that goes to a good university, gets an engineering degree (the most challenging, highest paying bachelor degree) :

Joe, age 22, married, Army Seargent, hanging out in Hawaii, surfing having a good time:
Yearly Regular Military Compensation: $61,016.32
(Basic Pay+BAS+BAH+COLA)
http://www.dod.mil/militarypay/pay/calc/index.html

Timmy, age 22, college graduate, Electrical Engineer:
Average Yearly Starting Salary: $52,009.00
http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/15/pf/c...ex.htm?cnn=yes

Tell me why someone that joins the military with a high school education should earn that much more than one of the highest paying, most technical college degrees? They shouldn't.

After 8 years, do you think maybe the engineering degree will pay off?

Joe, age 26, married, SFC, still surfing his life away:
Yearly Regular Military Compensation: $80,652.96
same site as above

Timmy, age 26, 4 years professional experience, working on his master's, Electrical Engineer, also in Hawaii:
Medium Yearly Salary: $72,205.50
salary.com

Again, why should Joe that maybe went to a 6 week training course to teach him to type numbers into a database be making more? It's ridiculous.

What's ridiculous is this post, the "logic" behind it, and your entire premise.

First of all, the compensation calculator is a fucking joke. When I was in the Corps, we used to get some form showing how much we were actually making adjusting our pay and bennies for what we'd have a civilians, assuming our tiny little barracks room was supposed to be comparable to an off-base apartment (an off-base aparmtment with no kitchen and no cable that you had to field day once a week and submit to surprise inspections and which you weren't technically allowed to drink in and couldn't leave your stuff unlocked), our chow hall meals were real food, and so on. According to the form, we were all farting through silk, which was of course a joke, and hence led to the annual carnival of derision we heaped on it.

COLA is standardized, actual cost of living ain't; hence, how well you do is dicey. Back when I was in, a married enlisted man could do okay in the area around Camp Lejeune since the local cost of living was cheap; if that same enlisted man got posted to, say, Fort Belvoir VA or the Pentagon or became an active duty advisor to the DC or Maryland Guard, they'd be paupers typically since the cost of living around there is a scandal.

Besides that, it's no fucking comparison.

"Timmy" generally doesn't work 24/7. His company don't own his ass, can't cancel his vacation on a whim, and is not likely to abruptly order him away from home and family for months on end, including sending him to hot, dirty, smelly, unpleasant shitholes where the locals may or may not start shooting at him or detonating homemade bombs at any given moment. Among other things.

And when "Timmy" finds himself in a middle-management role equivilant to, say, what a Staff NCO or company-grade officer does for considerably less money, he's not expected to stay on top of his employees at all times, not only being responsible for their job performance but also expected to be aware of their home and family situations, counsel them for any problems they have with booze, drugs, or writing rubber checks and straighten them out, or bail them out of jail on the weekend because they got drunk and stupid at a local titty bar and then likewise counsel them and steer them back onto the straight and narrow.

Point being: your entire comparison is so absurdly flawed as to make me wonder if you're serious or kidding.

USMMAMAN: we rarely see eye-to-eye, of course. This thread is one of those times...props, man, for saving me some typing.

[RaposaBJJ]

I believe that Military personnel get decent pay and bonuses and can make a good living for themselves. But I don't think they are OVERCOMPENSATED.

[J-Fight]

Originally Posted by Lubaolong

The point is military members shouldn't whine and complain about what society owes them. They are getting far more than they are worth.

It would be no different than a janitor that cleans the office of a college professor that bitches about only getting 2x the professor's salary. DUDE you are already getting more than you deserve.

"Worth" is purely relative. Who are you to say what soldiers make is overcompensated? Based on reading the other's posts, your facts are wrong. It seems you really are comparing apples to oranges - I don't think you are creating valid comparisons.