To keep pilots from leaving the armed services, the military is to increase their income by nearly NT$1 million a year for the nation's most experienced. The pay raises are to be instituted immediately, and have been included in this year's defense budget.
Air force fighter pilots, for example, will receive an extra subsidy of NT$50,000 per month for flight services as well as a bonus of NT$300,000 a year over five years for not asking for retirement. Added together, this extra subsidy and bonus amounts to NT$900,000 a year. The military does not strictly define this as a pay raise, since it covers only pilots in the three services.
With the additional NT$900,000, a fighter pilot at the rank of lieutenant colonel in the air force will earn around NT$2.7 million a year. The current monthly income of said lieutenant colonel is NT$150,000.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The increase in pilots' incomes in the three services will cost approximately NT$1.13 billion this year.
The problem of pilots fleeing to the better-paid civilian sector is most serious in the air force, which has had over 200 pilots retire since 1997, according to an internal military report.
In 1997, a total of 93 pilots retired from the air force. And the retirements occurred at the same time as the air force started bringing into service its second-generation fighters, including the F-16, Mirage 2000-5, and IDF. The retired pilots could have manned over half of the new fighters.
The military hopes that the problem will be brought under control with the introduction of the new monetary incentives.
But mere monetary incentives may not solve the entire problem, as there are other factors prompting pilots to leave the services.
An investigative report by researchers at the legislature's budget center indicates that pilots in the military are more concerned about their work environment than about pay.
The report also found that 59 percent of military pilots think their workload is more than they can bear.
Another 56 percent of the pilots say their main problem lies in communication with their superiors, who they say cannot accept their suggestions or ideas, the report says.
Only ten percent of pilots expressed dissatisfaction with their pay, indicating, the report says, that pilots are not leaving the services due to receiving lower pay than civilian pilots.
The legislative report criticizes the military leadership for simplifying the retirement problem as purely one of pay.
"Efforts to offer monetary incentives to keep pilots from leaving the services will not solve the problem. They will only put it out of focus," the report says.
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