ARMY INTRODUCES NEW MONTHLY INCENTIVE PAY TO BOOST SOLDIER RETENTION

We need Soldiers among our ranks, and the United States is putting its money where it’s mouth is. An extension is here for a new Army incentive pay program that began in January 2024. While the move is to help with retention, the extension is also happening to help organize the fiscal decisions of the branch as they navigate new conflicts and existing challenges to recruit and retain Soldiers.

2024 Army Incentive Pay for Soldiers Becomes Available

More Army incentive pay has become available for Soldiers as the military continues to find ways to increase recruitment and retainment numbers.

For Soldiers who are at the end of their enlistment contracts, and are serving in a unit scheduled for a rotational deployment, compensation through rotational deployment extension-assignment incentive pay is still available.

The program began in January 2024 and is being extended to help entice more Soldiers to stay on board.

Since the incentive pay from the Army began in January 2024, it was supposed to end in January 2025, but the branch’s Fiscal Year begins in October.

Now, the extension will align with the Army’s Fiscal Year, retroactively applying to October 1, 2024, and going until October 1, 2025.

How to Qualify

If you do ask for the Army incentive pay, reenlistment is possible if you are qualified through other means, however, until your original extension time is over, additional service time doesn’t start.

To qualify, you have to be a first-term, active-duty Soldier in the Army. If you’re in the Army Reserve or National Guard, you do not qualify.

You also must be on your first contract and the date that it ends must be between when your deployment would begin and end, plus 90 days.

You can request the Army incentive pay as early as nine months before your unit’s latest arrival deployment date.

If you extend between six and nine months before then, you’ll receive $500 per month for each month of your extension; however, this only applies to full months.

Soldiers who choose to extend their service at least 90 days before their service term expires but less than six months before their deployment will get $250 per month.

Not only do you receive this compensation as a lump sum but it’s also tax-free if you are deploying to a combat tax exclusion zone.

Furthermore, if your deployment changes by 31 days or more or ends up not happening, Soldiers have the right to cancel or modify their request to extend their service.

Reevaluating Pay & Incentives for Soldiers Isn't New

The new incentive isn’t the first or even the most recent example of the Army looking to provide Soldiers with additional compensation for their service.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth showcased a new operational deployment pay option that came about in October 2024, which provides Soldiers on deployments longer than 60 days will receive $240 monthly in special duty pay, regardless of rank.

The pay came to be after taking the time to reevaluate just how many hardships military families deal with during long deployments, such as operational deployments in Europe to deter aggression and rotational deployments which are often six to nine months.

Army Incentive Pay and Fiscal Year Recruiting Goals Show Promise

The U.S. Army surpassed its FY 2024 recruiting goals, but it still has work to do. While it remains a bit unclear whether or not new bonus and incentive programs are helping gain and keep Soldiers, the Army is pressing forward with more programs.

Approximately 11,000 Soldiers will enter the Delayed Entry Program for FY25, more than double the previous year's 4,661 recruits.

In addition to pay incentives, the Army has changed other factors, including the creation of a specialized talent acquisition workforce, to improve recruitment and retention.

The new Army incentive pay program is just another way the branch is proving that it’s taking its challenge of improving recruitment and retention seriously.

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