THE BIG STORY

The Financial Challenge Facing Military Families

What is the biggest economic issue facing military families and what can be done about it?

The economic importance of a spouse cannot be overstated. Married couples earn more money than their single counterparts even after controlling for things like education, age, etc. This economic phenomenon is often referred to as the Marriage Wage Premium (MWP) and studies suggest the benefit ranges somewhere between 10% and 40%. However, military spouses often have trouble pursuing careers. Many studies question whether or not the MWP occurs for military families at all.

Service in the military places heavy burdens and stressors on families. Military spouses are estimated to be three times more likely to be unemployed than their civilian counterparts. Among the group of employed spouses (a third smaller than in the general population), a third report being underemployed considering their education. This might explain why military spouses earn about 38% less money than their civilian counterparts do — when they can find work!

The combination of more frequent and persistent unemployment lends itself to lower lifetime income, slower career advancement and in turn reduced retirement savings. All of these factors can significantly impact the financial well being of military families during service but also have lingering effects long after the family separates from the military.

Among the many challenges that military spouses have had to face are the need to contend with frequent relocations (including internationally), the cost and accessibility of childcare, and increased responsibilities due to frequent deployments and training requirements.

Military families move 2.4 times as often as their civilian counterparts contributing to gaps in employment, disrupted educational attainment, and underemployment. A sensible approach the military could take to reduce this burden is to reduce the frequency of Permanent Change of Station (PCS) orders thereby curtailing the number of career disruptions imposed on military families.

Perhaps the most pervasive challenge military spouses face now is the shortage of accessible and affordable childcare. Many military families still have to make a decision about whether or not a spouse pursues their career or stays at home based on this one factor. Unlike many of their civilian counterparts, military families often don’t have a local family network to help out with young children. Calling up your in-laws to watch the kids because the babysitter calls out while you go to work simply isn’t an option for most military spouses. Defense Department data suggests more than 11,000 children are waiting for military-provided child care. By hiring more childcare workers, the military may be able to address some of the unemployment issues plaguing the military spouse community by hiring from within to address the demand for more childcare.

On a positive note, military spouses recently had a win in Texas. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) was upheld by a federal judge, setting a legal precedence for military spouses to port or transfer their professional licenses from one state to another, thus reducing the career long burden of getting relicensed every time their spouse got orders to a new instillation across state lines.

While this is a huge win for the community there are still a number of challenges facing military spouses that still need to be addressed at a policy level including the aforementioned frequency of relocations and access to affordable childcare.

In the interim, as we fight for changes as a community, what options do military spouses have?

There are no perfect solutions and there are certainly no one size fits all solutions for such a dynamic and nuanced problem set. It will take a wholistic approach by policy makers and individuals to demand changes to address the gaps in service and support to our military community. To this author’s mind it starts with widespread awareness of what the issues are and then a proactive approach of organizing at every level to fill the need.

At an individual or family level, the first thing to understand is what the challenges are and to prepare the best you can to meet those challenges. Creating a career plan, as well as a family plan, to help navigate life in the service is just as important for the service member as it is for their spouse. Maybe that looks like putting off children for longer or focusing on remote work for greater flexibility. Will you and your spouse stay in the service for 20 years or get out after your initial term is up? Does your family want an overseas assignment or would you rather stay put? Do you want kids, and if so, how many and when? Will you work full-time, part-time or stay at home? What does that look like and what happens if things don’t go according to plan? These questions need to be weighed as a family and their impact considered.

Creating an integrated career and family plan should take into account the timing and consequences of these decision points and many more. Each person’s approach should be tailored to their circumstances, needs and goals.

We may not be able to plan for every outcome. But failing to plan is planning to fail.

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