Colonel is the military rank in the United States of America that is awarded after Lieutenant Colonel. The Air Force Colonel is responsible for controlling a variety of units in the Air Force and is indispensable to the Air Force. The United States of America has eight uniformed services, and the United States Air Force is one of them. They were founded in 1947 with the mission to protect the United States by controlling and exploiting air and space. According to surveys and comparisons, it is the most potent Air Force in the world. Colonel is the rank that comes after Lieutenant Colonel. Every officer ascends a steep slope of training and hard work to reach this rank. In this article, we will discuss the rank of U.S. Air Force Colonel, its salaries and all the benefits it comes with.
Salaries For Air Force Colonel
A Colonel in the Air Force receives a salary of $7,332 monthly. This number will be increased as the officer’s service at this rank increases. The maximum it can go to is $12,979 in 30 years. In addition, the Colonel receives drill and hazard along with base salary of $244 and $250. Training pay increases with service. The maximum it can go up is $433 in 30 years. Hazard pay is the same throughout the service.
Colonel’s responsibilities:
The highest field grade officer rank in the U.S. Air Force is Colonel, immediately below general officer levels. In the Navy and Coast Guard, it corresponds to the rank of captain. Typically, group or wing commanders are colonels. In addition, they act as the vice-commanders for the corresponding positions. A colonel often a charge of the base, and colonels are in order of the groups within a base at most continental U.S. air force bases.
What is the Paygrade of a Colonel?
Field Officers having a paygrade of O-6 include Colonels. This military rank closely translates to GS-15 under the General Schedule pay scale of the federal government.
Air Force Colonel’s Salary Range:
A field officer with the DoD paygrade O-6 is described as a colonel in the U.S. Air Force. Starting at $7,332. The compensation for a Colonel’s salary rises each year to $12,980 month once they have served for more than 30 years. Colonels may also get housing and food allowances in addition to their base salary as well as any additional income they receive for dangerous jobs or hostile fire. Salaries for air force colonels typically range from $85,000 to $175,000 yearly. In addition, some air force colonels earn additional income from outside employment or own businesses. Training to become an air force colonel takes several years to complete. Upon successful completion of training, officers are assigned to a duty station where they receive their starting salary. Many duty stations are located globally to access different areas of expertise easily. After earning sufficient experience at their duty station, air force colonels may be promoted to higher ranks and earn higher salaries. The highest annual salary for an Air Force colonel is $205,000. Other high salaries include $185,000, $175,000 and $160,020 each year. In addition, there are other smaller salaries, that is $156,022 and $142,264 per year. There are also various other types of compensation for an air force colonel, that is as free housing and transportation allowances.
Additional compensation:
In addition to basic pay, a Colonel gets a number of allowances to reduce the weight of basic pay. The following are some of the allowances that they get.
Basic Housing Allowance (BAH)
A deployed military member will receive a monthly payment known as the Basic Allowance for Housing. Depending on where they live, individuals may receive different amounts of BAH monthly. Colonels receive an average Basic Housing Allowance of $2,580.58 with dependents or $2,133.88 without.
Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS)
Every Air Force officer is granted a $280.29 monthly allowance for grub. In addition, officers typically have access to subsidized meals in the officers’ mess; therefore, their BAS is less than that of an enlisted person.
Hostile Fire Pay / Hazard Pay
A Colonel may get hazard pay of $250.00 monthly while serving in an active war zone, being exposed to enemy fire, or experiencing other
dangers.
Discounts and benefits for service members:
In addition to the basic pay and reimbursement, benefits, and allowances earned by all servicemembers, current active soldiers, veterans, and even their families are eligible for hundreds of discounts and incentives organizations and businesses offer. These discounts are an essential benefit that service members may take advantage of, and the Following is the list of discounts available for them.
JetBlue:
JetBlue gladly provides a 5% discount on regular JetBlue travel to 85+ destinations in 24 states and 12 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America to our U.S. active duty, retired military, and veterans.
United Airlines:
If the veteran’s book flights for United and United Express flights through united.com, they get a generous 5% off on their flights. In addition, all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, can be accessed with the flights that start with and are ticketed in the United States or Canada.
Verizon:
Verizon is well-known for its generous discounts to veterans to pay them in terms of thank you for their services to the country. Also, Verizon gives all active-duty troops and veterans a 15% discount off the majority of its typical monthly advertisements plans and services. In addition, a 25% discount is available too on some accessories.
Average Tax for Colonel:
For a single filer in this tax band in 2018, the average federal tax rate was 22%. Air Force Colonels could expect to have a take-home salary of $65,761 per year, or roughly $2,740 every paycheck after federal taxes of 22% are deducted.
Quality of life for an Air Force Colonel:
An Air Force Colonel making approximately $7,000 in monthly take-home pay would pay 45.73% of their monthly take-home pay toward rent at a median 2BR apartment rental price of $2,506 monthly.
Conclusion:
Now we’ve learnt about ‘Salaries For Air Force Colonel’, To conclude the article, we can say that a Colonel officer gets a well-structured overall salary. Basic salary from around $7,500 depending on the number of service at Colonel rank is provided to Colonel officer, and it reaches a maximum of $12,000 after 30 years of service at Colonel rank. In addition, Colonels are awarded with several allowances, for example basic housing allowance, basic allowance for subsistence, and the drill pay allowance. Moreover, military officers in service and retired service members get several military discounts at many benefits in the United States, like Verizon, JetBlue, Starbucks, and United Airlines. Their taxes and quality of life are discussed too in the article.
