Question about Reserve pay.

[skyward80]

I was just wondering how much a pilot in a reserve unit earns on the average. I know it's E-5 for OTS and O-1 for UPT. Isn't it 1/2 of the applicable grade once you're done training and you're on reserve status in your unit? Obviously, there are a number of different things that can be done to tweak your pay (drill days, flight pay, etc.)... I just want to get a rough idea. I've looked at the current military pay scale sheet, but that doesn't clarify anything for me.

Skyward80

Sorry if this has been asked a thousand times already. I ran a few searches already, but didn't find any posts which answered my question satisfactorily.

 

[jstew311]

http://www.dfas.mil/money/milpay/pay/

Check this link out it will give you an idea of what to expect

 

[skyward80]

jstew311:

Yeah, I have that sheet on my desktop, but it doesn't clearly state what reserve guys get paid. Like I said, I think it's 1/2 of the O-level pay scale, but I'm not sure.

Skyward80

 

[T1bubba]

Skyward,

Go to the end, there is a chart for drill pay on the last two pages. That's what reserve pay is based off. How much you get paid depends on how many drill periods you do in a given month. The more you fly, the more you make.

 

[skyward80]

Okay... so it's 100% based on the number of drills somebody does. I suppose if your unit is activated for some reason, the pay would revert back to the standard active duty pay scale. Does that sound right?

 

[fredflyer]

skyward,

I've only been in the reserves for a year now, and I think you need about 10 times what I have to completely understand the way it works, but here's what I have figured out.

Please remember that this is for an airlift reserve unit, and it may be different for other guys.

The standard "one weekend a month, two weeks a year" applies. The weekend duty is called a Unit Training Assembly (UTA) That is actually comprised of 4 periods (2 a day). You basically get one day of pay for each period. Yes if you do the math, you get 4 days of pay for 2 days of work. You are only allotted one of these UTA's a month. As a flyer, you can re-schedule them and use them for whatever you want ( ground training, locals, etc. )

For the "two weeks a year" pay, those are actual active duty days. You get one day of pay for one day of work. We are allotted 15 of those a year, although you are only required to do 14.

Now, as a flyer, you are also allowed training periods (TP's), which, from what I gather are similar to the UTA periods for pay. They can also be used for most types of training, including locals, but they get sort of complicated in how you use them. There are two types of TP's, ground and flight. You can only do one Ground TP a day, but you can do 2 flight TP's a day, or 1 Ground and 1 flight in a day, thus getting paid for two days of work while only working one day.

The "one day of pay" I'm talking about is based on what your counterpart in Active duty makes a year (by rank and time in service) divided by 365. There are some other things to add. If you're on an active duty day, you get a housing and subsistence allowance, as well as flight pay, but on TP's or UTA's, all you get is flight pay. So basically you could have 4 different guys flying a local on the same airplane, and each one getting paid a different way, and a different amount.

If you get activated, you get paid just like your active duty counterpart for the length of time you are on active duty.

I hope that clears it up a bit for you, like I said, it's really a lot of smoke and mirrors.

 

[talondriver]

After all your IDTs, you'll have 14 days (with a max of 15) of ATs to use with the additional MPA days your unit offers you. Basically, MPA days are extra "active duty" days. Confusing enough for ya?