Military pay vs civilian salary calculator
What's your service actually worth?
Your paycheck only shows part of what you earn. Depending on your situation, tax-free allowances like BAH and BAS, healthcare, and retirement can add real value on top. A civilian offer has to clear your full total to leave you no worse off.
Free to use · Built by veterans · Takes two minutes
An E-5, six years in, looks like
Your total military package
$5,955/mo
Civilian salary needed to match
$6,337/mo
Run your own numbers below
Tell us about your service
Takes two minutes. The number at the end tends to be surprising.
Drag to adjust (0–40 years)
Spouse, children, or other dependents
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Optional — improves housing cost calculation
What type of area do you plan to settle in? e.g. Tampa, San Antonio
Your current Thrift Savings Plan contribution rate
How military pay compares
How military pay compares to a civilian salary
Base pay is the number on your paycheck. It is not the number that matters when you are weighing up a civilian job.
Military pay often comes wrapped in things a civilian salary has to buy separately. Depending on your situation, housing and food can come as tax-free allowances, healthcare runs at low or no premium, and retirement is funded in part on your behalf. A tax-free dollar of allowance is worth more than a taxable dollar of wages.
To match your military package, a civilian employer has to pay you enough to cover all of it, then enough on top to cover the tax you will now pay on the lot. That is why the honest comparison is rarely the one people expect.
Why a bigger salary can still be a pay cut
A civilian offer that looks strong on paper can leave you worse off than a military package that looked smaller. The reason is tax, and the things you stop getting for free.
On the outside, your whole income is taxable. Any tax-free housing and subsistence go. Healthcare becomes a premium. Retirement you barely funded is replaced by a plan you fund yourself.
Run your numbers before you accept anything. The figure the calculator gives you is the salary a civilian job needs to hit before you are genuinely ahead, not the point where you break even on base pay alone.
+25–40%
How much more a civilian salary typically has to pay over your base pay once allowances, healthcare, and retirement are valued.
The tax-free pay that inflates your real income
A good part of military pay can be tax-free, which makes it worth more than the same figure in a civilian salary. Allowances like Basic Allowance for Housing and Basic Allowance for Subsistence are not taxed, so they stretch further than taxable wages.
A rough civilian rule of thumb: take your tax-free allowances, add around a quarter to cover the tax you would now pay, and add the cost of health cover you used to get for free. The gross salary you land on is usually well above your military base pay.
$0
Tax paid on Basic Allowance for Housing and Basic Allowance for Subsistence.
Retirement, and the twenty-year math
Military retirement and the Thrift Savings Plan behave differently from a civilian 401(k), and the value depends heavily on how long you serve.
Factor the pension or TSP match into any offer as real income, not a footnote. The calculator accounts for your retirement system and years of service.
20 yrs
The service mark where a traditional military pension vests, and the math changes sharply.
The disappearing extras
The allowances that disappear when you leave
Some of the most valuable parts of military pay are the ones you stop noticing, and the ones that can vanish the day you separate. Which of these you get depends on your situation:
| Benefit | Value while serving | After you leave |
|---|---|---|
| Housing (BAH) | Tax-free, scaled to location and dependants | Market-rate rent from taxed income |
| Subsistence (BAS) | Tax-free food allowance | You cover it |
| Healthcare (Tricare) | Low or no premium in service | Employer plan or you pay the premium |
| Commissary and exchange | Discounted goods | Retail prices |
Whichever of these you actually get, none of them show up on your paycheck as income. They are still money, so the calculator puts a figure on the ones that apply to you and lets you compare like for like.
The same salary is worth more in some cities
A civilian offer does not translate evenly across the country. A number that looks strong in one metro can be a pay cut in another once housing and cost of living are counted.
If the role is remote, model it against the state you would actually live in, not the company's headquarters. The calculator applies a cost of living adjustment so the comparison reflects where you will be.
Pay grade matters, and so does time served
Two people at the same pay grade can be worth very different amounts. Grade, component, years of service, retirement system, dependants, and where you are based all move the number.
Rather than trust a grade average you found online, put your own details in and see your figure. An E-5 with six years, two dependants, and off-base housing looks very different once BAH and retirement are counted.
The next step
The number is the easy part. Knowing where to earn it is the rest.
Redeployable translates your service into the skills civilian employers screen for, then shows you where those skills are in demand and what they pay. The comparison number tells you the floor. We help you find the roles that clear it.
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