Straight Talk with Sam: Eliminating the Pay Gap

STRAIGHT TALK WITH SAM
Volume 5, Issue 9
Eliminating the Pay Gap
February 28, 2005

We ask our National Guardsmen and women to make a lot of sacrifices. They leave their families and jobs when they are activated; often times for challenging missions in far away lands. We ask a lot and they are patriots and heroes for way they respond. One thing I won't ask them to do is to take a pay cut to serve our country.

Yet that is exactly what is happening to too many of our reserves. A recent survey by the General Accounting Office found that just over 40% of National Guard troops were making less as soldiers than they were paid at their civilian jobs. I think we can do better than that.

That is why I have joined with a bi-partisan group of lawmakers in introducing legislation to end that pay gap. This legislation would give employers an incentive to pay the difference between an activated soldier's pay and his civilian pay. Specifically it would give those participating businesses a 50% tax credit for up to $30,000.

Some employers have chosen to make up that pay gap even without an incentive from the government. They are doing it because it is the right thing to do. I want to encourage more companies to help make up the pay gap.

Mortgage and car payments don't stop once you've been activated. Our soldiers and their families have many challenges when a loved one is deployed overseas. I think this bill is a common sense way to help.

http://www.house.gov/graves/straighttalk/2005issue9.htm