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Why Military Members Are Not Getting Paid Enough

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“Everyone knows the dangers of being in the military. Many military members put their lives on the line every day, which makes them some of the most underpaid people in America. But there are also other considerations, such as working with hazardous materials and in dangerous situations, being on call 24-7/365, and dealing with long term deployments and family separation”(Guina). I will write about why Military members are not getting paid enough, but not all I will be focusing on military members who are single with no dependents and are part of deployable units and I will be comparing them to their civilian counterparts who are in college. According Meyer, “Americans ages 16-24 on average earn $429 a week, or times 52 = $22,308 a year”, but that was in 2009. In the link he provides to the Bureau of Labor Statistics it shows that in 2015 the average is now $491 a week, and times 52 = $25,532. “The average age for a recruit is 19, so the typical pay for a 20-year-old sailor is E-2 = $37,637 a year.” (Meyer). This is the basic pay for an average military member who is not married and does not have any dependents. As you can see the difference is over $12,000 and on top of that military members do not have to worry about things like food. While college students have to pay for their meals or go out grocery shopping, single military members have a “chow hall” which is a military term for cafeteria. Here they are fed three meals a day and never have to use their paycheck on

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