Standard of Living of Enlisted Personnel

The level and composition of military pay is crucial to the success of the all-volunteer force (AVF). Most analyses of the "adequacy" of military compensation focus on comparability with earnings offered in civilian labor markets, but an effective compensation system needs to address other goals as well. An important goal is that military pay be sufficient to meet the basic needs of all personnel. This research memorandum focuses on the standard of living that the military compensation system provides its enlisted personnel and their families. The Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) reviewed the common methods, both objective and subjective, used to measure standard of living in the literature. We then used these different concepts to evaluate the standard of living of enlisted personnel. Our results suggest that relatively few enlisted personnel have incomes below the poverty lines.