Navy career sea pay: is it still a viable compensating wage program? A historical and financial analysis

Abstract

Resources should be allocated to those programs that provide benefits greater than their costs. This project examines if the Navy's Career Sea Pay program is effective at meeting that criteria for its enlisted component. Using five representative ratings, an historical review of changing trends in the Navy's use of sea pay is conducted to determine the program's intent. Cost data and measures of satisfaction with the amount of pay including survey responses and sea duty generation amounts are compared and analyzed. Empirical evidence suggests that the increase in Career Sea pay rates in fiscal year 2002 generated an increase in the willingness to go to sea; however, the increase was short-lived due to the loss in the real value of the compensation due to inflation. Additionally, statistical analysis provides no consistent verification of the relationship between the cost and intended benefit of Career Sea Pay and is unable to determine Sailors' assessment of the cost of sea duty. Two alternatives are proposed to improve the effectiveness of Career Sea Pay as an incentive to willingly perform sea duty.