The Pentagon on Tuesday announced that it will increase hazardous duty incentive pay for paratroopers, commonly known as jump pay. The monthly stipend will rise from $150 to $200, marking the first increase since 1998.
Additionally, jumpmasters — the paratroopers responsible for training and overseeing airborne operations — will receive an extra $150 monthly bonus on top of their existing jump pay. The new jumpmaster pay and jump pay boost go into effect Oct. 1.
Paratroopers, whose jobs include parachuting out of airplanes and helicopters, have among the most physically demanding jobs in the Pentagon’s portfolio, something jump pay is generally meant to compensate for.
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“Here’s to our paratroopers, our jumpmasters, who do the difficult things in difficult places that most Americans can never imagine,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Thursday during a visit to Fort Bragg, North Carolina — the Army’s highest-profile installation and home of the 82nd Airborne Division and Special Forces.
The move was paid for by cutting jump pay from some 20,000 troops. Paratroopers have to jump once a quarter to qualify for the extra pay, but many support roles in airborne units are now exempt from that training amid constrained training resources and difficulty scheduling soldiers to jump.
That cut saved the Army some $36 million annually.
While the extra $50 of cash monthly for paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne Division and other airborne elements is likely welcomed, the boost does not keep pace with inflation, which would set jump pay at just under $300.
The service has seen numerous reforms related to pay in recent years, including a new policy in October under which deployed soldiers are entitled to an extra $240 per month. A bipartisan House bill from Reps. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., and Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., aims to exempt enlistment bonuses from being taxed by the federal government.
Hegseth’s visit to Fort Bragg came during the base’s “All American Week,” a dayslong celebration of the 82nd Airborne Division that includes various physical fitness events and pageantry such as parades, ceremonies and parties.
“Our promise to you is that when the 82nd Airborne is deployed … if we have to call 911 for America’s response force, you will be equipped better than any other fighting force in the world,” Hegseth told soldiers during his speech.
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