The Army will reduce or eliminate Special Duty Assignment Pay for many recruiters next year, according to an official memo obtained by The Washington Times.
Special Duty Assignment Pay provides extra income for soldiers who perform extremely difficult jobs, or have an unusually high degree of responsibility for a mission. It ranges from $75 to $450 a month.
“Our leadership is well aware of the impacts of this change on our Soldiers and Families. The Army did not make this decision lightly; this decision results primarily because of the emerging budgetary environment that all services are facing,” Maj. Gen. Allen Batschelet, commanding general of Army Recruiting Command, said in the memo.
The Defense Department has been forced to cut its budget by $500 billion over the next 10 years under an automatic spending reduction law.
One recruiter who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals said a reduction in Special Duty Assignment Pay will likely not be well received by recruiters, who tend to work longer hours and are under more pressure to succeed than many of their fellow soldiers.
“Most of us ’career recruiters’ have factored our special pay into our lifestyles since many of us have had it for years,” the recruiter said. “We are now going to take a pay cut of possibly thousands of dollars a year … [I] certainly have not heard about Congress cutting any of their perks.”
• Kristina Wong can be reached at kwong@washingtontimes.com.
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