3.5 Percent Pay Raise on Hold

President Bush's veto of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 postpones the expected 3.5 percent across the board raise passed by Congress. However, due to a preexisting law, service members are guaranteed a pay increase of at least one-half percent above civilian average pay increases ? as determined by the 2007 Employment Cost Index (ECI). The ECI for 2007 was 2.5 percent, which means military service members will see an across-the-board pay increase of 3.0 percent in their Jan. 15, 2008 pay checks.

White House officials have stated that they will work with Congress to make sure the additional 0.5 percent pay raise is approved and retroactive to Jan. 1 under a reworked NDAA.

Let your elected officials know how you feel about this.