SF Retention Bonuses hit Six Figures

For everyone who is going to complain about this, they should note that in the Navy, Submariners and Aviators have been paid retention bonuses for DECADES. The Navy recognized a long time ago that these areas have skill sets that are in high demand in the civilian sector and that the high amount of time spent away from home (even in the "peacetime" Navy of the 70s, 80s, and 90s) would cause folks to leave.

Even so, I remember about 10 years ago that retention for first tour submariners (i.e., O3s at about the 5-7 year point) was slightly less than 20%. The annual bonus then was $10K. They started upping it and now we have higher retention. Currently, it is up as high as $25K. You can read all about it here.

It is not really any different than any other job: you need to pay to keep your talent.

OK, for some reason it did not take.

Here is the PERS-42 website link of Nuclear Officer Incentive Pay (NOIP).

No matter how right you are about the fundamental changes that are required as long as it is cheaper and easier to throw bonus money at the problem it's not gonna change. Nothing will ever change until leadership wants it to change.

The elephant in the room is the pay scale. The idea of everyone getting the same pay is very egalitarian, but it doesn't work because that's not how the market works. It has two virtues: it's simple (just look up your pay on the web) and transparent. Recruitment bonuses throw out both of those advantages.

Pay should be based on primary MOS at some percentile of market rate, with bonuses for performing at a higher skill level than qualified.

scooby,

You have a point however, don't the retention bonuses serve the same purpose?? Realistically, bonuses are higher for the most needed MOS's which means they get paid more.

Well, it ebbs, it flows, the people come and go...

Back in the late 70's, because the pilots in the USN and AF were all "bailing" to take huge pay increases and also not have to get shot at, I almost could have had the chance to move from the "back" seat to the front, with up to 20/20 correctable (20/50 at the time)...That program was put in place because of the hemorrhaging of trained. Had I forseen that in late 75, I would have opted to go to an NFO billet on commissioning (promotion rates for any NFO, let alone any shot at command was iffy back then), and sat being the "GIB" for two years...but the quirks of fate. I put on black shoes, and so it went.

Nothing new under the sun....and they still pay tons of money to keep pilots.

No matter how right you are about the fundamental changes that are required as long as it is cheaper and easier to throw bonus money at the problem it's not gonna change. Nothing will ever change until leadership wants it to change

Truth... right there.

The military has been trying this (and failing) with the medical corps for years. There's good reason why their retention rates after ADSC are in the single-digits for many critical specialties. Problem is, they think it's just about the money... and they're wrong.

I'm glad we are finally getting around to paying our most skilled soldiers what they are really worth.

Trying to figure out why senior personnel are leaving is a process of looking for the wrong thing while faced in the wrong direction.

The military is a very demanding environment, and always will be, period. When there is an opportunity to fight the same bad guys for so much more money, and a fraction of the overall military regimen, . . . follow the money.

Lawyers, doctors and pilots of course are not mere mortals and we shouldn't expect them to hang around some dank ol' military base when there's buckets of money to be made.

But hey, enlisted personnel, we should be able to just give them some more time off and maybe add a new rec center to their base housing area. Then they'll stay in for less money. I mean really, how many skills could an enlisted man have anyway?

My experience as an air force pilot about 10 years ago was that a lot of the bonus money was wasted. The overweight slugs who just wanted a secure job, and were going to stay in anyway, took the money. The go-getters who had the balls to take calculated risks in and out of the plane, did the math and left the service. Even at the 15 year point the civilian money was so much more that a $50,000 bonus was meaningless. So the warrior types left to fly commercial planes and the wusses stayed to fly military. Life is strange.

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