Just when we’ve gotten used to something in our military life being stable, the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission (MCRMC) throws us another curve ball. As military families, we have come to accept change, but there are things we just don’t like having messed with. The commissary is one of those things.
Congress charges the MCRMC to review military benefits and make suggestions on how the government can modernize the military compensation and retirement system. Recommendation 9 in their report is to combine the commissaries and exchanges, theorizing that it will ensure better access and savings for military families. That in itself is a huge topic of debate.
A particular component of that recommendation is that DeCA, Defense Commissary Agency, employees be converted from GS (General Schedule) federal employees to NAF (non-appropriated fund) in order to reduce staffing costs by an estimated $110 million.
What does that really mean? An estimated 16,000 DeCA employees will be biting their nails waiting to find out how their salary will be affected. Currently, DeCA receives government funding and their pay scales are different, and usually higher, than NAF counterparts such as the Exchange. According to Beth Moten, the legislative and political director for the employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), every DeCA employee will see a pay cut of at least 10% based on the scale differences. She gives an eye opener of an example:
The starting salary for a NAF employee commissary cashier in Charleston, South Carolina, for example, would be 47 percent below that of the current starting salary of a DeCA cashier in the GS system.
Need actual numbers to shake things up for you? Entry-level cashiers in Nevada commissaries are GS-3 employees earning at least $25,000. If their jobs are changed to NAF, their pay would line up with minimum wage, which I Nevada is $8.25 an hour making their salary now only $17,160 a year. They would be doing the exact same job for almost $8,000 less a year.
How would your job satisfaction and job performance change with an $8,000 pay cut?
To make things worse, NAF employees also have a different health care package that has fewer options, the employee retirement contribution is lower and the retirement age is higher than GS workers. Changing their status to NAF will also make their jobs less dependable as they would now be vulnerable to formal reduction in work forces and the possibility of their job being outsourced.
This all sounds terrible, right? You bet. The strain of this change won’t just make an impact on DeCA workers; it will also make a difference in your shopping and savings. If the commissary no longer receives appropriated funds, they will have to increase the price of goods to cover salaries.
In a recent government survey, 92% of respondents say they have shopped in the commissary. What percentage do you think will still be shopping at the commissary if prices are up and savings are down?
This change only looks good in the eye of the government. They would be saving a huge amount of money, but DeCA employees and commissary patrons would be feeling the brunt of it.
This is just a recommendation by MCRMC and hopefully Congress has not been taken in by shiny numbers but will see that military benefits like the commissary are something families deserve to have left alone. We need something stable in this crazy, ever changing life we all lead.
Keep the commissary the way it is and let families focus on more important things.
What do you think of this proposal? What would you say to the MCRMC or Congress?
Leave the commissary alone, you have stolen more and most of Veterns and Military benefits. Soldiers as well as retires live on paycheck to paycheck and need to save somewhere. They pay for medical and dental now as well as housing. They are promised(were) for life and now pay for it. Vets today once they are no longer able to serve are loosing benefits. STOP! Let us have our commissary. Your taking everything else!
I’D RATHER HAVE THEIR SALARIES CUT THAN OUR FOLKS OUT THERE ON THE LINE DEFENDING OUR COUNTRY WITH THEIR LIVES. WITH BIG BOX STORES & OTHER DISCOUNT STORES YOU CAN FIND LOWER PRICES MANY TIMES. YES, YOU’LL HAVE TO PAY TAXES. BUT THESE EMPLOYEES SHOULD NOT BE FEDERAL AS SO MUCH ON BASES NOW HAS CHANGED AS WELL TO PAY CUTS. WHY ALWAYS MESS WITH ACTIVE/VETERAN MILITARY & SOCIAL SECURITY. . IF THEY WANT TO MAKE MORE THEY CAN FIND OTHER JOBS OFF THE BASE THAT PAY MORE. OUR UNEMPLOYMENT RATE HAS DROPPED, SO SEARCH UNTIL THEY FIND A BETTER JOB. OUT SOURCING BEGAN MANY, MANY YEARS AGO & HAS PROVEN TO SAVE MONEY.
I agree!
yes
The Commissary is the last of the benefits that you have not half way taken away.. You have taken many of the medical care that the Senior People need, you deny them now.. I guess tho if you can afford to give each and every retired person a nice raise to compensate that loss then you would be justified but you can’t so you aren’t. As far as the workers go, it would not be a bad thing as long as you don’t take money from the ones that are already C.S. N.A.F. is not the best in the world but it would help some. I’m just not in favor or taking things away from the ones that have been there for yrs… Its like you taking the benefits from all the retired people from the medical. Any one with half a brain knows that the older ones are the ones that need the eyes and dental and that is exactly what you took, not to mention taking the oh post Doctors..
yes Josh give back to seniors but as you say they won’t. we need like you say better dental plan the waiting 12 months is ridiculous on the new plan, our medications added back, eyeglasses,, better things all the way around. we are becoming a ungrateful country to those who have dies & those served & their immediate family.
sorry mean Betty. a oops!!!
I’ll trade commissary privileges for real health care coverage. Older retirees were promised lifetime healthcare for them and their wives if they kept going back to the duty. The body pays the price for 20-30 years of service and all those deployments/wars. That was the trade-off, get out and make money as a civilian or serve and get benefits if you live through it. The one benefit that was a written promise
I want the U.S. government to fulfill is to give me decent healthcare.
yes
Another attempt to destroy middle class jobs and substitute wage slavery instead! When this happens we all suffer.