Reserve Gouge (Pay, Retirement, etc)

[46Driver]

Depends on the unit: some have more applicants than billets (T-34's in PCola for example) while others are easy to get into.

You need to fly at least once or twice a month to stay current.

Yes, your military time counts toward a federal retirement when you go Customs. I have friends there (I convinced them not to go airlines after my experiences) and they all love it. They get to fly both rotary and fixed wing. Age cutoff is 37 per federal law.

 

[PropStop]

Great post 46Driver, thanks for the info.

Quick question - don't you start drawing retirement right when you retire with 20 years? do you have to wait till you're 60?

Thanks for the info!

 

[Physicx]

46 driver how come you didn't go to cutoms.I know that you got bored with the airlines and low pay.Also do fighter guys have to fly more to maintain currency.

 

[46Driver]

Reserves do not get their retirement until Age 60. Federal Service gets the check after 20 years of service (I need to check more on that) but if you see the formula above, it is less than half what you get in the military (maybe why so many military jobs are being outsourced.)

I was close to going Customs - its a great job. However, I was told and planned that in 3 to 5 years to be out of the regionals and flying for Delta at $200k per year shortly afterwards. I bought that hook, line, and sinker.... The age cutoff for Customs is 37 and I'm over that now.

Currency is currency: its based on NATOPs. I doubt if the requirements are much different whether you are a fighter aviator, transport pilot, or helo bubba.

 

[Physicx]

The airlines tricked a lot of people.Southwest seems to be doing good and they will accept T-34 turbine time.Military folks are getting on with 2000 total time and 1500 turbine pic with a 737 rating.But it will probably be just a boring for you as the regionals.

 

[zippy]

Fers

Reserves do not get their retirement until Age 60. Federal Service gets the check after 20 years of service (I need to check more on that)

To try to shed some more light on the government retirement subject (Sorry for the thread jack)...

The current retirement system for federal employees who joined the government after Jan 1, 1987 is called the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Here is the OPM website about if for those interested.
http://www.opm.gov/fers_election/ri_90/f_toc.htm

Under this system you need to reach the minimum retirement age (based on your date of birth) and have 30 yrs of service, or be age 62 and have 20 yrs of service, in order to get full benefits. Certain groups (like law enforcement officers) can retire at age 50 w/20yrs with full benefits because they get 1.7%/yr for the first 20.

The age cutoff for Customs is 37 and I'm over that now.

The cutoff for Customs pilots is 37 because they are considered law enforcement officers and the mandatory retirement age for federal law enforcement officers is currently 57. (There has been talk of changing this, but nothing has come of it yet.) There are pilot jobs with other government agencies where the cutoff is later/doesn't exist.

Federal retirement = years of service x 0.011 x highest base pay

FERS Benefit amounts are calculated from the average of the employees highest 3yrs of pay (including base pay, cost of living allowance, and any special pay like Law Enforcement Availability Pay(LEAP)/ Overtime(AUO)

Also, under FERS government agencies match funds for the first 5% of your pay and automatically contribute 1% if you elect not to do tsp.

 

[Physicx]

Do they have full time reserve slots?

 

[46Driver]

FERS Benefit amounts are calculated from the average of the employees highest 3yrs of pay (including base pay, cost of living allowance, and any special pay like Law Enforcement Availability Pay(LEAP)/ Overtime(AUO)

Also, under FERS government agencies match funds for the first 5% of your pay and automatically contribute 1% if you elect not to do tsp.

If you could find this in writing, I would love to see it - it would be a big boost to the retirement (COLA alone could be an extra 25%). However, the section I saw said it was the highest 3 years of base pay only (not to include COLA or LEAP), much like the military which doesn't include flight pay or BAH when computing retirement. I sincerely hope I am wrong.

Thanks for the additional information - more is always better.

 

[PropStop]

If you do 10 years active duty and then 10 years of reserves, you have to wait till you're 60 to collect your retirement? If you do 20 years active duty, then you get retirement right away?

We had a brief on this not long ago and I was under the impression that reserves got their retirement right at 20 years, just as we did, but often less total money because they hadn't made as much yearly in the reserves.

edit: i'm a squid, if that makes any difference.

 

[46Driver]

If you do 10 years active duty and then 10 years of reserves, you have to wait till you're 60 to collect your retirement? If you do 20 years active duty, then you get retirement right away?

We had a brief on this not long ago and I was under the impression that reserves got their retirement right at 20 years, just as we did, but often less total money because they hadn't made as much yearly in the reserves.

edit: i'm a squid, if that makes any difference.

As a reservist, you will get your retirement at age 60 - not after 20 years of service (there is legislation to reduce this to age 55 but I would not count on it passing.)

However, you could possibly make more per month in retirement as a reservist then you could as an active duty person. How? It depends on the rank you retire at and the amount of time you stay in. If you retire from active duty as an O-4, you can only do 20 years of commissioned service. Therefore, you would recieve 50% of O-4 base pay, or roughly $3000 per month - starting as soon as you complete 20 years of service.

However, suppose you jump to the reserves: it is generally easier to make rank in the reserves so say you make O-6, you stay in for 30 years combined of active and reserve and accumulate a whopping 7200 points. 7200 / 360 (360 is used for the year) equals 20 years, or 50%. Thus, you get 50% of O-6 base pay, roughly $4300 per month but starting when you reach age 60.

If this is clear as mud, I'll try again later. Suffice it to say, as a reservist, your retirement is based primarily on rank and points. If you keep plugging, you can accumulate quite a bit, even if you don't get your retirement until age 60. If you don't want to do 20 years active and want to jump out to the airlines or another job, you can still make a quite healthy retirement from the reserves.

 

[PropStop]

that is a good deal for the reserves but 20 years and out is also a great deal. Hmmm, much to consider.

 

[zippy]

If you could find this in writing, I would love to see it - it would be a big boost to the retirement (COLA alone could be an extra 25%). However, the section I saw said it was the highest 3 years of base pay only (not to include COLA or LEAP), much like the military which doesn't include flight pay or BAH when computing retirement. I sincerely hope I am wrong.

It took some looking, but I found it.

As a little background, FERS is based off of the old Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and therefore certain CSRS rules still apply. Knowing this makes things a little easier to understand.

The link in my last post says that the High-3 "Average pay" is computed from the "Basic pay"... apparently in this case, basic pay and base pay mean two different things, with Base pay meaning how much you get paid for being whatever GS grade and step level you are, and basic pay meaning base pay plus included special pays.

Here is the link to OPM's "CSRS and FERS Handbook
for Personnel and Payroll Offices "
http://www.opm.gov/asd/htm/hod.htm#Computation of Benefits

If you want my step by step back tracking through the different sections to get to where I got it PM me and ill tell you how I found it, but the short version is:

In Chapter 30 “Employee Deductions and Agency Contributions.”, Section 30B1.1-1 says that Section 30A1.1-2 "Basic Pay" (for CSRS) applies to FERS. Go to that and it talks about what is included and excluded in the basic pay.

"Included" on that list includes authorized, irregular, unscheduled overtime for law enforcement officers up to 25% (LEAP for 1811 series/ AUO for other series) as well as special pay for recruiting and retention, interim geographic adjustments (whatever that means) and locality based comparability pay (which is the government equivalent of COLA, and is typically referred to as such, for the CONUS area). Among the excluded in that section is Foreign Post Differential pay or non-foreign post differential pay (OCONUS areas, ).

So if that extra 25% is coming from working as a Federal employee living in Hawaii your SOL when it comes to having that count towards your High-3 for retirement.

Hope this helps.

 

[46Driver]

Zippy,
Thanks for the digging. I've still got a lot to learn about the GS system but that is a good start.

Propstop,
Both staying for 20 active and going to the reserves have their benefits. What I like about the reserves was the flexibility: the ability to take orders to Europe or Asia for 6 months at a time, to stay flying in your current billet, the chance to dabble in a lot of interesting areas and see which one I liked. Also, if you are going to any job where seniority is critical (i.e., the airlines), the reserves allow you to get out and start your civilian career while still contributing to the military. You can also get lots of on the job training for the particularly career you choose - having military OJT is a big leg up on your civilian competition. Additionally, it is a great source of income if you are going to grad school and/or furlough protection: a reservist can come in 4 to 6 days a month, enough to cover a house payment.

 

[E5B]

So if I make my 20 here and retire at the age of 40, I'll have a lot of doors closed on me due to my age? What about flying for the National Park Service or Forrestry service. The reason I ask, is because I'm halfway to retirement now and my commitment puts me close to me 20. If this next 10 flies by as fast as the last 10 then I might want to thing about what I want to do.

I have no desire to fly for the airlines. I'd like to stay helos, the ultimate job would be predator control flying around shooting coyotes/bobcats/mt lions. Before I commissioned, I was tooling around the local airport back home and a Hughs 500 landed and I scuried over there to talk to the pilots. They both worked for the USDA doing nothing but flying around the flats and shooting coyotes. The ranchers greatly appreciated it.

 

[46Driver]

Most of the law enforcement jobs require you to be hired by age 37, however Customs had an exception for P3 pilots. I'm not sure about the Park service and related jobs. The other things to consider is that some of these jobs might be contracted - not government jobs. You won't get a retirement from a contractor job (I don't think that you will) but you would still be able to get hired.