Historical Military Pay Rates

Military.com | By Jim Absher

Updated December 19, 2023 at 3:18pm EDT | Published January 28, 2021

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) maintains an archive of historical pay charts dating back to Oct. 1, 1949. You may find it interesting to see how the current military pay compares to what service members made in the past.

The dates below reflect effective dates for the military basic pay rates, which may differ from the effective dates for the various allowances and other pay entitlements. These charts are intended for reference only and are not for official pay purposes. These charts are all in PDF format.

1949-1979	1980-1999	2000-2019	2020-Present
Oct. 1, 1949	Oct. 1, 1980	Jan. 1, 2000	Jan. 1, 2020
May 1, 1952	Oct. 1, 1981	Jul. 1, 2000	Jan. 1, 2021
Apr. 1, 1955	Oct. 1, 1982	Jan. 1, 2001	Jan. 1, 2022
Jun. 1, 1958	Jan. 1, 1984	Jul. 1, 2001	Jan. 1, 2023
Oct. 1, 1963	Jan. 1, 1985	Jan. 1, 2002
Sep. 1, 1964	Jan. 1, 1987	Jan. 1, 2003
Sep. 1, 1965	Jan. 1, 1988	Jan. 1, 2004
Jul .1, 1966	Jan. 1, 1989	Jan. 1, 2005
Oct. 1, 1967	Jan. 1, 1990	Jan. 1, 2006
Jul. 1, 1968	Jan. 1, 1991	Jan. 1, 2007
Jul. 1, 1969	Jan. 1, 1992	Apr. 1, 2007
Jan. 1, 1970	Jan. 1, 1993	Jan. 1, 2008
Jan. 1, 1971	Jan. 1, 1994	Jan. 1, 2009
Oct. 1, 1971	Jan. 1, 1995	Jan. 1, 2010
Jan. 1, 1972	Jan. 1, 1996	Jan. 1, 2011
Oct. 1, 1972	Jan. 1, 1997	Jan. 1, 2012
Oct. 1, 1973	Jan. 1, 1998	Jan. 1, 2013
Oct. 1, 1974	Jan. 1, 1999	Jan. 1, 2014
Oct. 1, 1975		Jan. 1, 2015
Oct. 1, 1976		Jan. 1, 2016
Oct. 1, 1977		Jan. 1, 2017
Oct. 1, 1978		Jan. 1, 2018
Oct. 1, 1979		Jan. 1, 2019

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Jim Absher

Jim Absher is Military.com's former benefits editor and columnist. He joined the Navy to see the world and later realized the world is two-thirds water. He also worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs in field offices and Washington, D.C. before coming to Military.com in 2015. Read Full Bio

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