Military leaders encourage personnel to participate in survey that will show higher costs they pay while stationed in Alaska
Military leaders are encouraging Alaska service members to fill out a survey that’ll show how a recent cut in overseas cost-of-living allowances has reduced their purchasing power, especially for costly winter gear like parkas and snow tires.
The effort to encourage Alaska service members to list the all the expensive items needed to live in the state comes in response to the Pentagon’s reduction last month of its Overseas Cost of Living Allowance, or OCOLA.
“We’re talking about coats, jackets, gloves, snow tires -- things that are really Alaska-specific,” says Air Force Maj. Jhannelle Haag, a spokesperson for Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson. She says those are recurring purchases for military personnel in Alaska with kids.
“If you have a young family and every single year, they’re getting a little bit older, they’re going to need to change those out,” Haag said Thursday.”
The reduction in the overseas COLA amounts to a cut in take-home pay of thousands of dollars annually for senior NCOs and officers and hundreds of dollars per year for lower-ranking personnel. Like, Airman First Class Dustin Smyth, who says the cuts will make it tougher for him and his wife to keep up with expenses.
“I use most of my OCOLA on diapers and baby formula for my child,” he said.
Smyth is firefighter stationed at JBER, and because he works irregular shifts, his wife can’t work, so the family only has one income.
“I work 48-hour shifts,” he said, “so I’m gone for two days at a time and I get back and I’m off for two days, so she really can’t get any work because we have no childcare.”
Haag says that’s why military leaders want to get as many service members as possible to respond to the survey and list those kinds of expenses. The leaders hope that’ll show how the cuts are making it harder for personnel to buy the necessities in Alaska.
“We want to make sure that members have an opportunity to identify those items and communicate that -- ‘Hey, this is kind of a unique expense that we have here in Alaska that maybe not necessarily in other locations they have to purchase,’ ” Haag said.
The so-called Living Pattern Survey is conducted every three years, to track the cost of living for service members stationed outside of the continental United States, which for military purposes, includes Alaska. The Defense Department uses the survey and other data points to set the O-COLA and adjust it periodically, in an effort to give overseas service members as much buying power as their counterparts assigned to installations in the Lower 48.
“The survey is applicable to all active-duty U.S. armed forces members, including all DoD branches, and it does apply to the Coast Guard as well,” she said.
Haag says the OCOLA cuts for service members assigned to other Alaska installations like Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright were twice as deep as those for JBER’s personnel. She says the reductions weren’t caused by goods and services in Alaska costing less, but rather because inflation has pushed Lower 48 prices higher more quickly than they’re rising here.
“Essentially, inflation is catching up to the prices that we’re seeing here,” she said. “So, obviously, if items are costing more down there, then they’re catching up to us here.”
Smyth says whatever the reason, the cuts are hurting military personnel. So he says it’s important for them to let the Pentagon know that Alaska is still a very expensive place to live.
“I just hope everyone does this OCOLA survey,” he said, “so we can get that COLA back up and everyone’s got enough money to do things that they actually have to do -- child care, taking care of their family, gas money, just everyday needs.”
Service members have until the end of the month to submit the survey.
Editor’s note: To find out more about the Living Pattern Survey and to participate in it, click here.
