Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog

Why Board Certification and Other Pays Probably Will Not Increase Until FY22

Posted on January 10, 2021 Updated on January 9, 2021

I have received a lot of questions about why Board Certification Pay and potentially other pays will probably not increase until FY22. The short answer is below, and I need to point out that all the services are saying the same thing right now, for the reasons spelled out below. The Navy is not unique here.

The pay plan is essentially a continuous evolution. As soon as the FY21 plan is signed (which just happened), the planning for the FY22 plan begins. The services’ play plans are based on the DoD pay plan. For example, in FY21 the DoD plan was worked on for months and then signed on 27 AUG 2020. Then months of planning began on the Navy pay plan. Each service has the latitude to pay “up to” the maximum pays that the DoD plan sets. In other words, just because NDAA 21 raised maximum pays, this doesn’t mean that the services are going to automatically pay them. In other words, now that NDAA 21 was just passed, it will take time for DoD and then the services to adjust the pay plans. This will likely happen with the FY22 plan. Could it happen sooner than FY22? I supposed anything is possible, but the pay planning and budgeting processes are not quick.

In the MC Chief’s Office, we advocate extensively for maximum pays whenever possible, and that is part of the reason why the pay plan has taken so long to come out the last 2 years. We will continue to advocate the best we can for maximal pays.