The Glade 4.0

Not even close, unless you're going to count pay by all 24 hours in a day for the entire deployment, which is silly because A) you're not working all 24 hours and B) who cares? Minimum hourly wage sucks in the U.S. because you're trying to get by on 8 hours a day, 5 days a week of it. The amount I'm making per week still vastly exceeds what a minimum wage person could make in a work week.

In my case, I'm a senior Captain so my pay is pretty high to begin with. There's also hazard pay of various types on top of all this, and no income taxes.

Yes, 12/12 is brutal, but its only for a year, there's nothing else really to do (well there is, but you can only watch so many movies, play so much softball, etc.) and there's not a lot to spend money on. You sleep free, eat free, and if you're not a dumbass spending all your money on snacks, video games, extra gear that isn't issued to you and you don't really need anyhow, or buying a motorcycle or a car you come home with an assload of money in the bank, plus a nice little form you can add to any future job application - especially any government job - saying you're a combat veteran. All this plus whatever nice skills you learned from your MOS.

Really, don't be ridiculous. 12/12 is a reason not to join the military? It's only like that in the field and in combat. Please, don't sign up. We don't need more whiners.

84 hours per week at $7.25 per hour is $31,668 per year. According to this chart, that's about the equivalent of an E-6 with 4 years of service. Now I realize I'm probably not matching rank and years of service well, (I don't really know how many years of service generally corresponds to what rank) but that's not a low rank and with 4 years of experience you get minimum wage for the work you do.

When you say, "no income tax," are you referring to the fact that you don't make enough to pay income tax, or are military members exempt from paying income tax?

Roophus & X:

There is more to life than working, true, but putting in a few years of 70-80-90 hours a week will definitely put you in a position of being able to do more than "get by", or "get by and plan for the future". I understand the reasons why some people choose not to put in that much time and effort, as I said before: "That's why some people tread water through life and others end up cruising in their own boat."

X:
DE stated that he's a Captain, that's O3 if I recall correctly. IIRC, if you serve in a combat zone, your military pay that month is excluded from gross income.

DE- I tend to equate all work in terms of hours. Since work is not what I do to get enjoyment out of life, every hour worked is one less hour that I'm not spending time with family and/or doing the things I love. It always equates to hours for me. If I had to choose between working 80 hours making $31k in a year,versus working 40 hours to make $24k, I'd much rather work the 40. You're working an extra 40 hours just to make 7k, and that's absolutely idiotic. There's no reason in the world to settle for working 80 hours just to make $31k, if money is your motive.

Motives can be different for different people, though. I'm simply saying I'm one of those different people.

That's all well and good if you want to equate it that way, but claiming that military personnel in general are making minimum wage becasue of that equation is pretty silly, and that's what X is doing.

Not only that, but it certainly doesn't apply to being deployed in a combat area because you're certainly not going to be going home to your family in your off time. People do not join the military int he first place because their only concern in a job is the dollars:hours ratio.