A Framework for Setting Special and Incentive Pays in the Department of the Air Force : RAND Corporation , September 30 , 2025
A Framework for Setting Special and Incentive Pays in the Department of the Air Force : RAND Corporation , September 30 , 2025
From the report: "Special and incentive (S&I) pays, including bonuses, are a key element of military compensation that vary based on such factors as occupation, assignment, duty type, and location. The Department of the Air Force (DAF) requested that RAND Project AIR FORCE develop a strategic compensation framework for S&I pays. The framework’s purpose is to help ensure that these pays achieve their intended purposes and that the DAF uses them in a coordinated, comprehensive manner while recognizing their interrelationships with other pays and aligning them with the U.S. Air Force’s (USAF’s) and U.S. Space Force’s (USSF’s) talent-management goals.
Our approach involved a review of existing statutes, policy documents, and literature related to military compensation. A panel of experts was convened to identify strategic objectives, key features, and necessary data and models for the framework. Additionally, discussions with subject-matter experts (SMEs) from the DAF, USAF, USSF, and Office of the Secretary of Defense involved with setting S&I pays provided insights into the existing practices and coordination of S&I pays.2 We sought to demonstrate the framework’s effectiveness by applying it to one of the DAF’s widely used incentive pays: selective retention bonuses. In addition, because the framework highlights the importance of estimating how changes to S&I pays affect desired outcomes, we also developed models to estimate the effects of the Assignment Incentive Pay (AIP) policy, which is pay “designed to encourage Service members to volunteer for difficult-to-fill or less-desirable assignments, locations, or units” (DoD, 2019, p. 9)."
Authors - Asch, Beth J., Tong, Patricia K., Calkins, Avery, Nesbit, Rachel, Mulcahy, Patricia, Oliver, Gina, Okuda-Lim, Zhan, Firoz, Perry, Mahler, AmySubjects
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