Newport Navalog

New Military Pay Plan Tests To Begin In July

There's a possibility Navy and Marine Corps personnel will someday be paid every other Friday instead of twice a month.

A "dry run" to test the practicability of such a scheme will begin in July and continue for six months.

If the test proves practical the plan is scheduled to go into effect sometime in 1963, possibly on 11 Jan.

Here is the thinking behind plan. If a sailor or Marine gets a check every other Friday instead of twice monthly he will have money coming in on a regular basis.

The possibility of three week-ends in a row without pay will be erased.

The six-month test will be run by some of the ships of the Atlantic Fleet, the Naval Air Technical Training Command, the Naval Air Facility at Andrews AFB, Md., some outfits in San Diego, the 1st Marine Division and other Marine activities in the Camp Pendleton, Calif., complex on the West Coast.

Surveys were run to see what reaction the plan would have with the people it affects. The lower grades, almost to a man, favored it. Higher ranking personnel said it didn't matter, but if it would benefit some, then they were for it.

The Navy said the plan would not affect allotments made by personnel to dependents and would not change in any way the basic monthly pay rate.

26 Pay Days

It actually means a man would be scheduled for 26 paydays every year instead of 24.

The pay checks would, of course, be slightly smaller.

The system was devised by the Navy's Comptroller. His thinking was that it would simplify money management not only for fiscal officers but for the men as well.

Under the new system paydays will fall every other Friday. If a holiday falls on Friday, payday can be scheduled a day earlier.

To do this, paymasters, if the plan goes into effect, will withhold one day's pay on each individual account after each scheduled pay day.