BlackWater BS says they are under paid and starving to death?
Editor note: Original source: Serviam Magazine
Just How Overpaid are Private Security Contractors?
By Ann Jocelyn
A base pay of $165,000 per year is a lot of money for most people, especially to a soldier. It’s no wonder that some military professionals aspire to become highly paid private security contractors (PSCs), and that others will simply resent them for earning these high wages.
Compared with the basic pay of an active duty E-6 staff sergeant with 10 years of service, the cash compensation of a top-end PSC is a small fortune. Some critics are outraged that a high-end contractor is paid nearly five times as much as that of an E-6. The contracting system, they say, is unfair to the troops and is a rip-off of the taxpayer. For every one contractor, the reasoning goes, the U.S. could pay for five staff sergeants.
That might make sense if the compensation systems were similar. But they aren’t. Serviam spoke with some of the highest-paid PSCs in Iraq to learn exactly what they earn in salary and benefits, and what they return to the government in taxes. We then looked at official U.S. military compensation charts. When comparing net cash and noncash compensation, we found that the E-6 sergeant can take home more pay and benefits than the security contractor.
As the table below shows, the active duty E-6 has an annual base pay of $33,976 plus basic allowances for housing and subsistence, for a total of $44,863. Adding special duty pay, a reenlistment bonus aggregated over four years, and other allowances, minus federal taxes, the total net cash compensation comes to $63,340.
The independent security contractor, who in this instance earns a base pay of $165,000, receives no other benefits. Because he is rotated in and out of Iraq every 90 days, he cannot claim the income tax exemptions that he could if he was stationed abroad for a full tax year. In his high tax bracket, he must pay $69,300 in federal taxes—more than 50 times what the sergeant must pay.
That still leaves the contractor with a net cash compensation of $95,700, or about 38 percent more than the sergeant.
Then we factor in noncash benefits such as health care, installation-based benefits, subsistence in kind, family housing and barracks, education, and other benefits. For the sergeant, these benefits can total $22,765. The sergeant is also entitled to retirement pay accrual, Veterans Administration (VA) compensation and pension, VA health care, and related health benefits, amounting to $34,269 per year in deferred benefits. Total compensation for the staff sergeant after taxes can equal $126,734.
The contractor in this illustration receives none of the noncash benefits or deferred benefits of the sergeant. Now the tables are turned: $126,734 in total compensation for the staff sergeant, and $95,700 for the contractor.
But wait—there’s more. If the contractor wants the noncash and deferred benefits such as health care, housing, and retirement contributions, he must pay out of his pocket. His $95,700 take-home pay, minus the equivalent $22,765 in noncash benefits and the $34,629 in deferred benefits, leaves him with a net cash compensation equivalent of a paltry $38,306.
By contrast, the staff sergeant walks away with a net cash contribution of $69,340.
One can slice and dice the compensation figures in endless ways. The point is simply that the contractor’s U.S. government–approved pay, while higher than the sergeant’s pay in terms of cash received, is more economical for the taxpayer when taxes and benefits are counted.
See charts in original article.
"Serviam serves government agencies and lawmaking bodies at the local, state, national and international levels; commercial entities that analyze, recommend, acquire and provide private global stability solutions; and the organizations that authorize those solutions."
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Mercenaries
If this is true, these men are really very stupid. But reading between the lines, the comparisons to E-6s, the "can's" inserted into all the extra benefits a soldier gets, etc., etc., I suspect it's just more mercenary propaganda.
Where'd you find this, Max.
J
PS You gotta learn how to make links, Mr. Dog.
The Big Lie from Blackwater! * Goebbels
Where'd you find this, Max.
J
PS You gotta learn how to make links, Mr. Dog.*J
I got this today on Blackwater e-mail alert system to their skull and crossbones priates. Notice the date of the story which was posted on the e-mail alert with no reference to the link....typical psy-ops spook trick....the data was not in the alert, I had to search the maz since the story was 5 months old about the time Blackwater was sweating their hearing in congress.....Marshall has done excellent job in pointing out the BS....Congrats....As you say J, either their Mercs are the biggest dumb asses around or simply just retarded....One other note....Prince Erik is a major investor in Serviam Magazine
Just How Overpaid are Private Security Contractors?
Nov/Dec 2007
Serviam Magazine
Ann Jocelyn
A lot of you have voiced your support and asked how you can help. Here is a great comparison of active duty versus contractor pay, that you can utilize to defend the use of contractors to efficiently and effectively maximize taxpayer spending.
Look again, the Miltiary/Mercenary comparisons fade
Cash Compensation Cash Compensation
Basic Pay ° 33,976(Befor taxes) Base Pay 165,000 (First 82,000.00 tax free)
Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) * 8,507 Housing Allowance - (Single in Barracks $0.00)
Mil Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) * 2,380 (While deployed $0.00)
Basic Pay + BAH + BAS 44,863 Merc Basic Pay + "BAH" + "BAS" 165,000. (Single soldier in Barracks deployed 33,976.00 befor taxes).
Mil Special Duty Pays ** 12,060 - Only in Combat zone
$45k Capped Reenlistment Bonus °° 11,250 Reenlistment Bonus - (Average Reenlistment Bonus 2,000.00)
Other Allowances * 2,441 Other Allowances - While Deployed $0.00 (Clothing allowance)
Federal Tax Due ° (1,274) Federal Tax Due (69,300) (After 82,000.00 tax fee, 13,400 befor deductions)Net
Cash Compensation 69,340 Net Cash Compensation 95,700 (Over 125,000.00)
Federal Tax Advantage * (Not Included) 4,538 Federal Tax Advantage (Not Included) (0)
Noncash Benefits Noncash Benefits
Health Care * 6,829 Health Care - (In Iraq and Afghanistan Mercs are treated by military free of charge..They Keep the cash)
Installation-Based Benefits * 3,700 Installation-Based Benefits -
Subsistence in Kind * 2,455 (when Deployed $0.00) Subsistence in Kind - (Mercs eat for free in military dining facilities)
Military Family Housing and Barracks * 2,221 (While In Barracks $0.00)
Mercenary Family Housing and Barracks - (They live for free on our taxpayers dollars)
Military Education * 466
Mercenary Education - 0.00 (They can afford it)
Mil Other Benefits * 7,093
Mercenary Other Benefits (They (Mercenaries)came there by choice and can leave at any moment they choose). They do not have to engage any enemy who they might not be able to defeat, or who may hurt them. They are not subject to the UCMJ, US Law, or Iraqi Law, 4 free days in Jordan every 6 weeks).
Thanks, Greg.
It stank like Blackwater propaganda ... which it is.
Private global stability solutions
That's a new one on me.
Not new, but still a ghastly bad idea
It's very Rothbardian.
--
relocating from Indianapolis, IN to RTP, NC soon; got any advice for me?
I wouldn't recommend drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me. -- Hunter S. Thompson
My heart breaks
Let me make it clear - I don't wish ill to anyone, even someone working for Blackwater or other Soldier of Fortune outfits. But I have less sympathy for them than I do for the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who serve in the real US military. In my job, I am serving more and more of their families, as Ft. Bragg grows.
And even worse, to me, is trying to help the families of the National Guardsmen, who never expected to be sent overseas for months at a time. Yet they went, without complaint, and their families are scattered all over, without the support of having the base close by.
Our government should be ashamed for using these mercenaries instead of investing in the proper military. It's deplorable.
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
Anybody here ever see that
"So you want a day off" joke e-mail thingie? Where the fictional boss lists all the benefits, holidays and assorted other factors (like sleeping 8 hours a day) to show that the person only really works one day a year, and wants to take that one off?
Yeah, this is like that.
Folks, you can work these things like puzzles all day long, but it doesn't keep that sergeant's wife from having to borrow money to feed her kids.
If you want to try something really worthwhile, talk someone into paying you a penny a day and "doubling" it every day for a month. You make your first million dollars on day 26 I think.