In fiscal year 2002, the Congress appropriated over $100 billion for pays and benefits. The basic goals of the military's compensation system are to attract, retain, and motivate the number and quality of people needed to maintain our national security. Although a unique institution, the military nevertheless competes with other organizations for qualified people. It is the single largest employer and trainer of youth, recruiting about 196,000 individuals into active duty in 2001. The military may face increased competition for qualified people over the next few years in response to projected labor shortages through at least 2010. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the civilian labor force will increase by 12 percent by 2010 while total employment will increase by 15 percent. The active duty force has undergone several demographic changes since the draft ended and the military became an all-volunteer force in 1973. The force has become older and better educated, and the force has experienced increases in the representation of minority and female servicemembers. The percentage of personnel over age 25 increased from about 40 percent of the active duty force in 1974 to nearly 55 percent in 2000. The proportion of enlisted personnel with at least a high school diploma increased from about 80 percent of the enlisted force in 1974 to about 95 percent in 2000. During that time period, the percentage of officers attaining a degree beyond a bachelor's degree increased from 25 percent to 43 percent of all officers. The proportion of minority servicemembers increased from 20 percent to 35 percent of the active duty force between 1974 and 2000, and the proportion of female servicemembers increased from 4 percent to 15 percent. One of the most significant demographic changes has been an increase in servicemembers with family obligations. While reliable marital data is lacking for the years immediately following the advent of the all-volunteer force, various DOD studies cite statistics showing increases in the percentage of married enlisted personnel. According to these studies, the percentage of enlisted personnel who were married increased from approximately 40 percent of the force in 1973 to approximately 50 percent in 1977. After a slight decrease from 1977 to 1980, the marriage rate increased through the mid-1990s. DOD attributed the overall increases in marriage rates to the gradual aging of the active duty force. Between 1980 and 2000, at least half of the active duty force consisted of married servicemembers. Other DOD data also indicate that servicemembers today have increased family obligations. The percentage of servicemembers with children increased from 43 percent to 45 percent between 1990 and 2000. During that time period, the proportion of single servicemembers with children increased from 4 percent to 6 percent. Figure 1 shows the composition of the active duty force, by family status, in 2000. A significant body of research by the military services shows that family satisfaction with military life can significantly influence a servicemember's decision to stay in the military or leave. On the basis of this research, DOD during the last 2 decades established a variety of institutions and services to support military families. For example, family support centers were established at installations to deliver programs such as personal financial management training, spousal employment assistance, relocation assistance, new parent support programs, and deployment assistance. Health care benefits for military families also have been enhanced. For fiscal year 2001, for example, the Congress eliminated most co-payments for active duty families enrolled in TRICARE Prime (the military's managed care health program) and expanded benefits for family members living in remote areas. In the area of education, the Congress authorized DOD in fiscal year 2002 to grant reenlisting servicemembers who possess critical skills the option to transfer a portion of their Montgomery GI Bill benefits to their spouse and dependents. Since the summer of 2001, DOD has been reviewing its quality of life programs in an effort to articulate what it terms a "new social compact" with servicemembers and their families. According to DOD officials, the social compact is needed to ameliorate the demands of the military lifestyle, which includes frequent separations and relocations, and to provide better support to servicemembers and their families. The social compact focuses on education, housing, work-life, family and community support, and health. Although DOD has responded positively to increases in servicemembers with family obligations by incorporating a number of family friendly benefits, opportunities exist to improve some current benefits in this area. DOD has identified needs to expand child care and spousal employment assistance. Another potential area for improvement is maternity/paternity leave. In addition, DOD faces challenges in reaching out to servicemembers to increase their awareness and use of benefits. Active duty servicemembers have a strong demand for child care. In 2000, the services had more than 600,000 active duty members with children, and about 85,000 of these members were single parents. Of the 1.23 million military children in 2000, nearly three-fourths were 11 years old or younger. DOD has placed a significant emphasis on improving and expanding its child care system which includes child development centers, family care centers, and school-age care programs. DOD also operates centers for youths and teens. In 1982, we reported that many military installations had child care centers that were not suitable for the purpose and did not meet fire, health, and safety standards. Following the passage of the Military Child Care Act of 1989, DOD worked to improve the quality, availability, and affordability of military child care. In 1997, the president praised the high quality of the military's child development programs, citing improved resources, oversight, and training, as well as a commitment to meeting national accreditation standards. Today, 99 percent of the 450 child development centers the military operates are accredited. DOD is working to expand capacity to meet a range of child care needs, including initiatives to extend care hours and subsidize the cost of obtaining child care at commercial centers. The department is seeking to add 45,000 child care slots to the approximately 176,000 slots that exist today. DOD hopes to meet 80 percent of its members' child care needs by 2005. DOD also has begun to pay increased attention to employment assistance for military spouses. In 1999, 48 percent of officer spouses and 55 percent of enlisted spouses were employed in the civilian labor force, while 7 percent of officer spouses and 8 percent of enlisted spouses were unemployed and seeking work. According to a March 2001 study conducted for DOD, working spouses of military servicemembers contribute up to 40 percent of the family's income and earn an average of 24 to 30 percent less than their civilian counterparts. In part, this wage differential, which increases for those with higher levels of education, is due to local labor market conditions. Some installations are located in remote areas characterized by relatively poor labor market conditions. Military spouses also face several other employment challenges. For example, frequent relocations make it difficult to sustain a career and amass retirement benefits. Junior enlisted families face particular financial difficulties as the result of housing and transportation costs, the high cost of credit, and child care expenses. However, income from a spouse's job can help to mitigate some of these problems. Although DOD has had a formal spousal employment assistance program since 1985, the department has taken a number of recent steps to enhance the program. DOD held a spousal employment summit in 2000 to identify needed actions. The department is focusing on establishing partnerships with private-sector employers who can offer jobs with "portable tenure," which enables spouses to relocate and stay with the same employer. Other efforts include expanding employment preference for spouses working in Europe and establishing partnerships with federal agencies to increase private-sector career opportunities. For example, DOD is developing a partnership with the Department of Labor to resolve issues that occur at the state level. According to DOD officials, each state maintains varying residency and licensing requirements for jobs such as teaching, nursing, and child care. Spouses who work in these fields and relocate may need to be recertified after meeting residency requirements. DOD is seeking Labor's assistance to help spouses overcome these employment barriers. The Navy and Marine Corps also have launched a partnership with a civilian employment services firm at two installations. These initiatives are in the early stages of development. As a result, it is too early to gauge their effectiveness in promoting spousal employment. Up to 10 percent of active duty female servicemembers become pregnant each year, according to the military services. As of March 2001, there were about 75,000 military children under the age of 1. While new military mothers and fathers may take time off after the birth of a child, the military does not offer extended leaves of absence to new parents. New mothers may take 6 weeks of paid convalescent leave, which is similar to sick leave in the private sector. Both new mothers and new fathers may use annual leave. The services stated that they do not track information concerning the number of women who separate permanently from active duty service because of parental leave policies. We previously reported that of the 28,353 women without prior military service who enlisted in fiscal year 1993, 2,074 separated because of pregnancy from the 7th through the 48th month of their enlistment. These separations represented approximately one-fourth of all female attrition. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 does not cover military personnel. The act requires private-sector employers with more than 50 employees to allow their employees to take 12 weeks of unpaid leave to meet family obligations, such as maternity or paternity leave, adoptions, and care for a spouse, child, or parent with serious health conditions. Paid maternity and paternity leave in the private sector appears to be rare. In 1997, only 2 percent of employees had access to paid family leave programs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of nine private-sector companies we contacted, one allows employees to take up to 3 years of unpaid leave after the birth of a child and to return to a comparable position. Another company gives mothers 12 weeks paid leave with the option to take additional unpaid time off. If she returns within 6 months, the company guarantees her position; if she returns after 1 year, the company guarantees employment, but not the same position. DOD faces a continuing challenge in making military personnel aware of their benefits so they can take full advantage of what is available. For example, the military offers a relocation assistance program to provide transferring servicemembers with information on reimbursable moving costs and other services. A 1999 DOD-sponsored study found that the survey respondents who used the program had a higher portion of their expenses reimbursed than those who did not use the program. Specifically, personnel who used the program were reimbursed an average of 62 cents for every reimbursable dollar spent. In comparison, personnel who did not use the program were reimbursed 46 cents for every reimbursable dollar spent. According to DOD officials, a particular challenge is reaching out to the two-thirds of military personnel and their families who reside off-base. In order to improve outreach, DOD is increasing its use of the Internet by adding information and transactional features to various web sites. DOD officials also said the department is pursuing opportunities with the private sector to provide certain services, such as fitness facilities, child care, and employee assistance programs, especially for members who reside in remote areas or away from bases. When we compared the types of benefits offered as part of the military's overall benefit package with private-sector benefits, we did not identify significant gaps in the benefit package offered to active duty servicemembers. Most important, DOD offers all of the four core benefits that are offered by most private-sector firms. These benefits are retirement, health care, life insurance, and paid time off. As figure 2 illustrates, DOD also offers a wide array of additional benefits. Many private-sector firms, of course, offer additional employee benefits as well. On the basis of our prior work on military compensation and DOD's compensation studies, we would like to note several difficulties associated with making direct comparisons between military and private-sector benefits. Such comparisons must account for (1) the demands of military service, such as involuntary relocation, frequent and lengthy separations from family, and liability for combat; (2) certain principles of military compensation that are absent in the private sector, such as the principle that military compensation must work equally well during peace or war; (3) the difficulty in identifying appropriate private-sector industries and jobs to use as benchmarks for the military; (4) difficulties associated with measuring the value of employee benefits; and (5) military personnel practices--such as hiring primarily at the entry level and "up or out" rules--that are uncommon in the private sector. For these reasons, we have not made direct analytical comparisons between individual benefits offered by the military and those offered by the private sector. For instance, we did not attempt to determine whether the military retirement system is, based on certain criteria, more lucrative or less lucrative than private-sector pension plans. However, we sought to identify the types of benefits found in the private sector--both traditional and emerging benefits--and used this information to determine whether there are potential gaps in the benefit package offered to active duty servicemembers. To gather information on private-sector benefits, we conducted a broad literature search of private-sector benefit practices and used survey results of medium and large employers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and from several human resources consulting firms. We also interviewed representatives from nine companies that have been recognized as innovative or effective in strategically managing their human capital. Private-sector employers take a great variety of approaches when designing their benefit package. Even so, three thematic trends have become evident over the last decade or two. Specifically, private-sector companies are (1) offering a growing number and array of benefits--such as long-term care insurance, convenience benefits, and elder care assistance--while also making changes to their traditional core benefits; (2) introducing more flexibility in their benefit packages; and (3) adding benefits to help employees balance work and life responsibilities. While private-sector firms use pay and benefits packages to attract and retain employees, they are also concerned about controlling costs. Employers increasingly are sharing a growing portion of benefit costs with employees, particularly health care costs, while requiring them to assume more responsibility for managing their benefits. Some employers have reduced certain benefits or ceased to sponsor coverage. We recently testified that the availability of employer-sponsored retiree health benefits eroded during the late 1990s, and that rising cost pressures on employers may lead to further erosion of these benefits. Like the military, the private sector also has reacted to demographic changes in the workforce. Since the 1970s, the American workforce has become more educated, more heterogeneous, and older. The numbers of dual-earner families, working women, and single parents have increased. Employers have reacted by offering benefits aimed at helping employees balance work and life demands. Since the 1980s, employers have begun offering benefits such as dependent care assistance, parental leave, flexible work schedules, and convenience services. Convenience services such as dry cleaning, banking services, and take-home meals allow employees to save time by running errands during work hours. Flexible schedules that allow employees to adjust the beginning and ending of their work day, work more hours per day but shorter weeks, or share a job with another part-time employee are some of the ways that employers help employees to manage their work and family responsibilities. Flexible benefit plans also help employees by allowing them to select additional benefits that may help balance work-life priorities. Our work comparing the military's overall benefit package with the array of benefits in the private sector showed that several military benefits have their analogues or counterparts in the private sector. As we noted earlier, the military offers benefits in the four core areas; however, the military may structure its benefits differently. For example, whereas the military retirement system requires 20 years of service to be vested, private-sector firms typically have much shorter vesting periods or no vesting period at all. The military's health care benefit is provided through a network of about 580 military treatment facilities, supplemented by civilian providers. The cost of this care to servicemembers and their dependents is nil or minimal. Private-sector firms, in contrast, typically offer individual and family health care through private insurers and normally require employees to share the cost burden. In 1999, private-sector employers paid the full cost of medical coverage for 33 percent of participants with individual coverage and 19 percent of those with family coverage, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of those participants required to contribute to their medical coverage, the average monthly cost was approximately $50 for individual coverage and $170 for family coverage. In the core benefit area of life insurance, DOD offers low-cost rates on group life insurance. Servicemembers pay $20 a month for the maximum $250,000 coverage. In November 2001, coverage was extended to members' spouses and eligible children. Finally, in the core benefit area of paid time off, all servicemembers receive 30 days annual leave and may carry over as many as 60 days accrued leave to the next year. The military offers numerous other forms of paid leave for specific reasons. In some areas, the military offers benefits that would not normally be available to civilians working for private-sector firms. For example, servicemembers may obtain discount prices by shopping at military commissaries (grocery stores) and exchanges (department stores). They also have privileges to use an extensive array of community facilities to include, among others, fitness centers, swimming pools, officer and enlisted clubs, libraries, community centers, hobby shops, and golf courses. Some private-sector firms offer amenities such as fitness centers and company stores, but few, if any, can match the breadth of facilities and programs available on a military installation. It also would be rare to find private-sector firms offering, as the military does, free housing or housing allowances to all of their employees. Military benefits, overall, have been enhanced in recent years. During the 1990s, some servicemembers expressed concerns that their pay was falling behind that in the private sector and that their benefits were eroding, particularly their health care and retirement benefits. Such perceptions were cited as one cause of the retention problems the military was experiencing at that time. The Congress subsequently enacted legislation to increase military pay and enhance benefits. These efforts were aimed at improving the financial well-being and quality of life of servicememembers and at addressing recruiting and retention problems. For example, the Congress approved across-the-board pay raises of 4.8 percent for fiscal year 2000 and 3.7 percent for fiscal year 2001, along with targeted pay raises to mid-level officers and enlisted personnel. For fiscal year 2002, the Congress approved pay raises ranging between 5 and 10 percent, depending on pay grade and years of service. Major enhancements to benefits included the restoration of retirement benefits that had been cut for military servicemembers who entered military service on or after August 1, 1986; increases in the basic housing allowance to reduce out-of- pocket housing expenses for servicemembers not living in military housing; and expansion of health care availability and reduced costs for families and retirees. Although DOD offers a wide array of benefits to active duty servicemembers, DOD's benefit package was developed piecemeal in the absence of a strategic approach to human capital management. A well- developed human capital strategy would provide a means for aligning all elements of DOD's human capital management, including pay and benefits, with its broader organizational objectives. Pay and benefits are tools that an organization can use to shape its workforce, fill gaps, and meet future requirements. In prior reports and testimony, we have identified strategic human capital management planning as a government-wide high-risk area and a key area of challenge. We have stated that agencies, including DOD, need to improve the development of integrated human capital strategies that support the organization's strategic and programmatic goals. In March 2002, we issued an exposure draft of our model for strategic human capital management to help federal agency leaders effectively lead and manage their people. We also testified last month on how strategic human capital management can contribute to transforming the cultures of federal agencies. Several DOD studies also have identified the need for a more strategic approach to human capital planning within the department. The 8th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation, completed in 1997, strongly advocated that the department adopt a strategic human capital planning approach. The review found that DOD lacked an institution-wide process for systematically examining human capital needs or translating needs into a coherent strategy. Subsequent DOD and service studies, including the Defense Science Board Task Force on Human Resources Strategy, the Naval Personnel Task Force, and the DOD Study on Morale and Quality of Life, endorsed the concept of human capital strategic planning. DOD officials have acknowledged the need for a more strategic approach and plan to issue a human capital strategic plan in April 2002. The plan has three components: a military personnel strategy (which includes the reserves), a civilian personnel strategy, and a social compact that, as we mentioned earlier, addresses quality-of-life issues. Since our work focused on military personnel, we reviewed that component of the strategy. We had an opportunity to review a draft of the military personnel strategy and to discuss it with DOD officials. We will briefly describe the strategy, including the elements that address pay and benefits, and then raise issues for consideration that DOD may wish to incorporate in future iterations of the strategy. DOD officials told us that the military personnel strategy outlines a plan of action for the next 3 to 5 years. The strategy identifies more than 30 initiatives organized into five "lines of operation," or goals. These five goals are (1) increase the willingness of the American public to recommend military service to our youth; (2) recruit the right number and quality of personnel; (3) develop, sustain, and retain the force; (4) transition members from active status; and (5) sustain the process and maintain its viability. A majority of the initiatives are studies addressing various military personnel issues. Some of the issues that DOD will study--such as the lateral entry of civilians into the military workforce, the ramifications of variable career lengths for officers, and the appropriate grade structure for the manpower needs of future weapons systems--could lead to proposed changes that have far-reaching impacts. The strategy does not call for any near-term changes to pay and benefits. However, as shown in table 1, the department plans to study several pay and benefit issues. While DOD has recognized the need for a strategic approach to managing its human capital, the military personnel strategy is missing elements that would be found in a fully realized human capital strategic plan. Since the military personnel strategy is intended to be a dynamic document that periodically will be assessed and refined, DOD will have opportunities to incorporate additional elements of human capital strategic planning in future iterations of the strategy. Specifically, DOD may wish to consider the following questions as it refines the military personnel strategy: How can human capital approaches be linked to DOD's mission and programmatic goals? Effective organizations link human capital approaches to their overall mission and programmatic goals. An organization's human capital approaches should be designed, implemented, and assessed by the standard of how well they help the organization pursue its mission and achieve desired results or outcomes. The new military personnel strategy captures the DOD leadership's guidance regarding aspects of managing human capital, but the strategy's linkage to the overall mission and programmatic goals is not stated. For example, DOD continues to rely heavily on technology to carry out its overall mission "to fight and win wars." DOD's human capital approach to recruiting and retention--if it were linked to its overall mission--would emphasize individuals with the skills needed to fight and win "high-tech" wars. To the extent possible, DOD may wish to determine the kinds of benefits, or combination of benefits, that would best position it in the future to attract and retain individuals possessing these skills. How can human capital performance measures be improved? High- performing organizations use data to determine key performance objectives and goals that enable them to evaluate the success of their human capital approaches. Collecting and analyzing data are fundamental building blocks for measuring the effectiveness of human capital approaches in support of the mission and goals of an agency. In our Government Performance and Results Act work, we raised concerns about DOD's human capital performance measures. For example, the performance measures did not fully address the extent to which military forces are highly motivated or DOD's efforts to develop personnel. The new military personnel strategy provides measures of effectiveness for each initiative; however, these measures are not adequate to assess the success of DOD's human capital approaches because they (1) do not describe the significance of outcomes in terms of programmatic goals and results, (2) are not always specific or stated as measurements, and (3) are activity-based rather than outcome-oriented. For example, one initiative calls for a study of sabbatical programs. However, the measure of effectiveness for this initiative is to implement guidance for a sabbatical- type program. The relationship between sabbatical programs and the goal of improving retention is not described. Furthermore, the significance of sabbaticals in accomplishing DOD's mission is not stated. What skills and abilities will be needed in DOD's future military workforce to accomplish its mission, and what potential gaps exist between current and future workforce needs? Agencies must identify their current and future human capital needs and then create strategies for filling the gaps. Agencies' strategic human capital planning must be results-oriented and data-driven, including, for example, information on the appropriate number and location of employees and their key competencies and skills. The new military personnel strategy does not address workforce requirements or gaps. How can benefits be more closely linked to the basic goals of recruiting and retaining a high-quality workforce? Our prior work has shown that retention decisions are highly personal in nature and that many factors, including benefits, may affect the decision of a servicemember to stay in the military or leave. The new military personnel strategy does not discuss which combinations of benefits, pay, and other factors have had the greatest influence on retention decisions. In the last DOD-wide survey of active duty personnel in 1999, key benefits such as housing and health care for families were not among the top reasons cited by military personnel for considering leaving. In fact, the family medical care benefit was cited as a top reason for staying. On the basis of the 1999 survey, we also found that increasing housing allowances would do little to increase retention. Less than 1 percent of servicemembers cited housing allowances as a top reason to leave. Our work has shown that first-term and mid-career enlisted personnel and mid-career officers perceived that compensation was better in civilian life than in the military, but they believed the military provided some better benefits, such as vacation time and education and training opportunities. First-term enlisted personnel cited education benefits and training for civilian employment as top reasons for joining. But they were less likely to stay on active duty than those who joined for other reasons, like personal growth or travel. To what extent should DOD's military personnel strategy address servicemembers' dissatisfaction with their work circumstances? The new military personnel strategy does not acknowledge or address the dissatisfaction that servicemembers have expressed about their work circumstances. Work circumstances include the availability of equipment and materials, manning levels of units, frequency of deployments, and personal time for family. While pay and benefits are important, factors other than compensation appear to be a source of dissatisfaction with military life that could lead to retention problems. In our prior work we found that many factors were sources of dissatisfaction and reasons to leave the military for personnel in retention-critical specialties. The majority of the factors were associated with work circumstances rather than with benefits. Our work on pilot retention problems also confirmed these findings. Pilots raised concerns about their work circumstances, leadership, career development, and aviation retention bonuses. On the basis of the 1999 active duty survey, we found that military personnel perceived that civilian life was more favorable than military life with respect to personal and family time, quality of life, and hours worked per week. The survey data also showed that the duration of permanent change of station tours was related to satisfaction. Those with shorter time spent between moves were less likely to be satisfied with the frequency of moves and less satisfied with the military way of life. Mr. Chairman, this completes our prepared statement. We would be happy to respond to any questions you or other Members of the Subcommittee may have at this time. For future questions about this statement, please contact Derek B. Stewart at (202) 512-5140 (e-mail address: stewartd@gao.gov) or Brenda S. Farrell at (202) 512-3604 (e-mail address: farrellb@gao.gov). Individuals making key contributions to this statement include Ann Asleson, Jocelyn Cortese, William Doherty, Thomas Gosling, Stacey Keisling, David Moser, Krislin Nalwalk, Stefano Petrucci, Maria-Alaina Rambus, Madelon Savaides, Lois Shoemaker, and Earl Williams. This appendix lists active duty pays, allowances, and benefits that we identified during our review. We compiled this list from Department of Defense (DOD) financial management regulations, service budget documents, military compensation background papers, DOD and service websites, directives, and other department documents. Child Care: How Do Military and Civilian Center Costs Compare? GAO/HEHS-00-7. Washington, D.C.: October 14, 1999. Military Child Care Programs: Progress Made, More Needed. GAO/FPCD-82-30. Washington, D.C.: June 1, 1982. BIA and DOD Schools: Student Achievement and Other Characteristics Often Differ From Public Schools. GAO-01-934. Washington, D.C.: September 28, 2001. DOD Dependents Schools: Cost Issues Associated With the Special Education Program. GAO/HEHS-96-77. Washington, D.C.: May 13, 1996. Military Personnel: Actions Needed to Achieve Greater Results From Air Force Family Need Assessments. GAO-01-80. Washington, D.C.: March 8, 2001. Military Dependents: Services Provide Limited Confidentiality in Family Abuse Cases. GAO/NSIAD-00-127. Washington, D.C.: April 5, 2000. Defense Health Care: Across-the-Board Physician Rate Increase Would Be Costly and Unnecessary. GAO-01-620. Washington, D.C.: May 24, 2001. Defense Health Care: Observations on Proposed Benefit Expansion and Overcoming TRICARE Obstacles. GAO/T-HEHS/NSIAD-00-129. Washington, D.C.: March 15, 2000. Defense Health Care: Tri-Service Strategy Needed to Justify Medical Resources for Readiness and Peacetime Care. GAO/HEHS-00-10. Washington, D.C.: November 3, 1999. Defense Health Care: Management Attention Needed to Make TRICARE More Effective and User-Friendly. GAO/T-HEHS-99-81. Washington, D.C.: March 11, 1999. Federal Health Programs: Comparison of Medicare, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, Medicaid, Veterans' Health Services, Department of Defense Health Services, and Indian Health Services. GAO/HEHS-98-231R. Washington, D.C.: August 7, 1998. Military Housing: DOD Needs to Address Long-Standing Requirements Determination Problems. GAO-01-889. Washington, D.C.: August 3, 2001. Military Personnel: Higher Allowances Should Increase Use of Civilian Housing, but Not Retention. GAO-01-684. Washington, D.C.: May 31, 2001. DOD Personnel: Improvements Made to Housing Allowance Rate-Setting Process. GAO-01-508. Washington, D.C.: April 16, 2001. Military Housing: Continued Concerns in Implementing the Privatization Initiative. GAO/NSIAD-00-71. Washington, D.C.: March 30, 2000. Military Family Housing: Opportunities Exist to Reduce Costs and Mitigate Inequities. GAO/NSIAD-96-203. Washington, D.C.: September 13, 1996. Managing for Results: Building on the Momentum for Strategic Human Capital Reform. GAO-02-528T. Washington, D.C.: March 18, 2002. Exposure Draft: A Model of Strategic Human Capital Management. GAO- 02-373SP. Washington, D.C.: March 15, 2002. Human Capital: Taking Steps to Meet Current and Emerging Human Capital Challenges. GAO-01-965T. Washington, D.C.: July 17, 2001. Human Capital: A Self-Assessment Checklist for Agency Leaders. GAO/OCG-00-14G. Washington, D.C.: September 1, 2000. Human Capital: Key Principles from Nine Private Sector Organizations. GAO/GGD-00-28. Washington, D.C.: January 31, 2000. Defense Management: Proposed Lodging Policy May Lead to Improvements, but More Actions Are Required. GAO-02-351. Washington, D.C.: March 18, 2002. Military Personnel: Longer Time Between Moves Related to Higher Satisfaction and Retention. GAO-01-841. Washington, D.C.: August 3, 2001. Military Personnel Reassignments: Services Are Exploring Opportunities to Reduce Relocation Costs. GAO/NSIAD-96-84. Washington, D.C.: February 16, 1996. Military Personnel: First-Term Personnel Less Satisfied With Military Life Than Those in Mid-Career. GAO-02-200. Washington, D.C.: December 7, 2001. Military Personnel: Perceptions of Retention-Critical Personnel Are Similar to Those of Other Enlisted Personnel. GAO-01-785. Washington, D.C.: June 28, 2001. Military Personnel: Services Need to Assess Efforts to Meet Recruiting Goals and Cut Attrition. GAO/NSIAD-00-146. Washington, D.C.: June 23, 2000. Military Personnel: Systematic Analyses Needed to Monitor Retention in Key Careers and Occupations. GAO/NSIAD-00-60. Washington, D.C.: March 8, 2000. Military Personnel: Preliminary Results of DOD's 1999 Survey of Active Duty Members. GAO/T-NSIAD-00-110. Washington, D.C.: March 8, 2000. Military Personnel: First-Term Recruiting and Attrition Continue to Require Focused Attention. GAO/T-NSIAD-00-102. Washington, D.C.: February 24, 2000. Military Personnel: Actions Needed to Better Define Pilot Requirements and Promote Retention. GAO/NSIAD-99-211. Washington, D.C.: August 20, 1999. Military Personnel: Perspectives of Surveyed Service Members in Retention Critical Specialties. GAO/NSIAD-99-197BR. Washington, D.C.: August 16, 1999. Military Pilots: Observations on Current Issues. GAO/T-NSIAD-99-102. Washington, D.C.: March 4, 1999.

Summary:
Since the advent of the all-volunteer Army in 1973, the number of servicemembers with spouses and children has grown significantly. Although the Department of Defense (DOD) has responded positively to this change, GAO believes that some current family benefits could be strengthened. For example, despite improvements to the quality of military child care centers, DOD needs to further expand child care capacity. Moreover, DOD faces challenges in increasing awareness and use of these benefits. GAO compared the military's benefits with those of the private sector, including retirement pay, health care, life insurance, and paid time-off, and found no significant gaps in the benefits offered to active duty servicemen and women. In fact, some military benefits exceed those offered by the private sector.