Most troops based in Europe will see the cost of living portion of their paychecks shrink a bit for the first two weeks of May.
That’s not the case for those based in the United Kingdom and Turkey, however, according to a Web site maintained by the Defense Department’s Per Diem, Travel and Transportation Allowance Committee.
An E-5 based at RAF Lakenheath or RAF Mildenhall with eight years’ service and two dependents will see a jump in COLA from $159 in the last two weeks of April to $204 in the first two weeks of May.
An airman in similar circumstances at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey will see a rise from $91 in April to $113 in May.
Elsewhere in Europe, though, the numbers are going in the opposite direction.
The biggest drops will be felt in Germany and Spain. Using the same profile already described, a soldier based at Grafenwöhr will see a decrease from $341 to $273 and a sailor at Rota will experience a drop from $364 to $318.
Servicemembers based in Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands will also see drops, but on a smaller scale. An E-5 as previously described stationed at Naval Air Station Sigonella, for instance, will get $477 in COLA for the two-week period instead of $500. Servicemembers can calculate their own COLA via the following link: www.defensetravel.dod.mil/perdiem/ocform.html
Troops based overseas receive cost-of-living-allowance payments in an effort to give them the same buying power for consumer products as they would have in the States.
A servicemember’s COLA is based on factors such as location, rank, years in service, number of dependents, housing status and the currency exchange rate. COLA rates are generally determined by a study conducted every three years that determines average buying habits in an overseas community, and a yearly market-basket comparison between local prices and similarly priced products in the States.
The government pays out about $1.7 billion each year in COLA payments to servicemembers in about 600 locations around the globe, according to the Web site. DOD civilians receive post allowances — determined by the State Department — and not COLA.
