The military's basic pay table should be redesigned so that service members promoted faster than their peers have a pay advantage that lasts not for a year or two but throughout their careers, a defense panel has concluded.

The Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation, a seven-member panel of compensation experts, issued its final report early this month.

Replacing the current time-in-service pay table, designed in 1949, with a "time in grade" table would make basic pay a more effective element of military compensation, the committee said. It would become a better tool for drawing into the military "lateral entrants," that is, people with civilian-acquired skills, as well as those with prior military experience.

The idea of a revised military pay table, along with other sweeping pay recommendations, has become a "starting point" for a thorough examination of military pay by the Pentagon's 10th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation.

The quadrennial review director, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Jan D. "Denny" Eakle, has said a new time-in-grade pay table "has merit." It would "reward people for advancing ahead of their peers" through "a more permanent recognition'' of their performance."

It would signal, she said, "that this person has moved ahead of his or her peers and we're going to compensate them over the long haul."

Under the current time-in-service pay table, officers and enlisted members promoted one year ahead of peers enjoy extra basic pay but only for that year. "After that, the difference vanishes," said Eakle.

When colleagues reach the same rank, their basic pay will rise to match that of the fast-riser. That's because pay steps in the current table are based on time in service rather than time in a rank or pay grade.

By shifting to a time-in-grade table, the pay advantage from early promotion can more than double. The defense committee's report notes, for example, that an enlistee who advances to E-5 a year ahead of peers, and stays a year ahead with future advancements, will get an extra $22,000 over a 30-year career. But if pay table steps are based on time in grade, that one-year head start will be worth about $45,000 over a 30-year career.

The difference would be even greater for officers. Under the current pay table, an officer promoted to O-4 a year ahead of peers would realize a $20,000 difference in basic pay over a full career. With a time-in-grade pay table, the difference would jump to $64,000.

The committee estimated the first-year cost of a transitional save-pay provision at $1.1 billion. Eakle said the review will look at whether a revised table is possible without raising budgets.

A revised basic pay table is one of two key recommendations aimed at strengthening the link between military pay and performance. The other calls for an end to the disparity in basic allowance for housing between service members with dependents and those without.

The defense advisory committee would like to see housing allowances for unmarried service members raised to match that paid to married members. The committee put the cost at $550 million a year.

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