Senator Collins Co-Sponsors Legislation to Address National Guard and Reserve Incentive Pay Disparities

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Susan Collins co-sponsored the National Guard and Reserve Incentive Pay Parity Act, legislation that would help ensure that Reserve Component service members in high-skilled roles are compensated at the same rate as active duty counterparts performing the same work.

“The brave men and women of our nation’s National Guard and Reserve make countless sacrifices to keep our communities safe.  In addition to being the right thing to do, ensuring that Reserve Component service members are fairly compensated will help retain highly skilled members as well as keep the Guard and Reserve strong and ready to respond to emergencies,” said Senator Collins. “Our bipartisan bill would eliminate the pay disparity for service members who perform the same work and have the same level of training and preparedness.”

The Department of Defense (DoD) currently uses more than 60 incentive and special duty pay rates to help retain individuals with specific skill sets that can fill roles that might be difficult to replace.  Despite doing the same work and having to maintain the same level of training and preparedness, however, Reserve Component service members are in many cases not compensated at the same rate as their active duty counterparts.  The National Guard and Reserve Incentive Pay Parity Act would address that pay disparity and simultaneously help the Guard and Reserve retain high-skilled and uniquely skilled individuals, which is ultimately more cost effective for our Armed Forces.

The legislation is endorsed by nearly 30 military and veterans’ organizations, including: the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), Association of the United States Army (AUSA), Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS) and the Reserve Officers Association (ROA).

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