Anyone know what the average pay grade for troops running around in hummers getting blowed up by IEDs is right now?
Since you asked, I'm always willing to inform people (and most people really don't seem to have any idea).
During my year deployed, I made approximately $43,000. I was an E-4 with 6 years in, so a fairly midlevel rank (for the Army, at least). Now, that $43,000 is including hazardous duty pay, family separation pay, BAS (which, in theory, I should not have been getting...it's supposed to be for the
soldier's food only and suspended for deployment but apparently the Army doesn't bother anymore), BAH (which for my ZIP code worked out to over $800 a month), etc.
Also, when looking at that pay you have to consider that it was tax-free (though I believe I may have been paying medicare/SS taxes...I'd have to go look). Also figure I'm getting medical/dental covered for my family (not
entirely free if off-post, but roughly equivalent to most civilian policies).
So really, it wasn't
horrible. However, when you factor in what were probably 80-hour workweeks on average (and without even bothering to account for such frivolities as "overtime") I was making somewhere around $10-$11 an hour. To, you know,
risk death. [EDIT: And only see my wife for two weeks out of a year.] It also starts to suck when you look at what civilians doing jobs eerily similar to your own were making, also tax-free.[/tangent]
But yeah, arguing that the poor contribute more to military enlistment than the middle class is a non-starter. It's not a significant amount. Arguing that the rich contribute less than their share can be done, but only if you break it down farther than quintiles. I'd be interested to see some numbers regarding the poorest quintile as far as how many are barred from enlistment due to criminal records or lack of diploma/GED...not that they should be allowed in, just that it could account for the slight under-representation on that end.[/other tangent]