Originally Posted by
CirrusF
I think service personnel are quite well paid, when the allowances, pension and job-security are taken into account.
Civvy wages might appear higher on paper, but mostly you have to pay for your own pension, you receive no contributions for kids education, and worse you have next to no job security. The cost of losing a job is very high, particularly if you have to sell up and relocate, and that is not counting the cost of stress on family life. Never under-estimate the worth of a secure job.
CirrusF, you are correct to a point except that many employer offer BUPA. Some offer boarding school allowance even better than the MOD. Some redundancy packages are good too.
No, the real point at the outset was visible pay comparability. Before the military salary the guy in the pub would ask the serviceman what he got paid. The answer was £16 per week. The repost was that "I get £25."
What the serviceman did not add was the free food and accommodation, clothing allowance, medical care, generous leave allowance (4-weeks), education, sport etc etc - all worth considerably more that the extra £9 per week.
What the civvie failed to mention was the money paid out for food, accommodation, heating, lighting etc.
It was decided that a military salary was necessary to aid recruitment and retention. Hence pay went up and food and accommodation was charged for. One big gotcha was that the extra money now paid so that it could be deducted for food and accommodation was pensionable!
The AFPRB should be looking soley at salary and not 'perks'. Once, when asked why leave was stuck at 4/6 weeks they replied that leave was a military decision and nothing to do with the AFPRB who looked only at Pay.