The latest federal defense bill includes a 5.2% raise for all active duty troops, giving sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines roughly a 10% pay bump over the past two years. 

The increase is almost unprecedented, said Cory Titus, who served seven years in the U.S. Army before leaving in 2017. He now works with the Military Officer Association of America.

“I don’t want to be all doom and gloom. People at the top end are doing very well,” he said. 

Inflation was at 3.14%  nationwide in November and it has been falling since hitting a high of 9% in June 2022. Normally, military pay raises are designed only to off-set inflation, Titus said.  

“The pay and compensation package for the compensation benefits package for service members is very strong,” he said. here's certain areas where we need to work on because, ultimately, if they're worried about putting food on the table, they're worried about their spouse finding a job, they're not going to be focused on the mission.”

Titus said young sailors with families still struggle. Housing is increasingly unaffordable in places like Hampton Roads, where the median home sale price in August was 32.6% higher than it was in February 2020, according to the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. 

Troops receive a Basic Allowance for Housing, which covers  95% of the cost of housing.BAH used to cover 100% of the cost until 2015. By 2020, a government accounting showed the average military family was paying an extra $1,000 a year for housing out of pocket.Now the figure is closer to $2,400 a year. 

Solutions that would have restored the BAH to 100 percent, or raised the pay of the youngest sailors were left out of the final 2024 budget, Titus said.

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