Increase to IDF soldiers’ salaries goes into effect

A plan to significantly increase the salaries of conscripted Israel Defense Forces soldiers went into effect this month, two months after it was approved by the Defense Ministry.

Combat soldiers, who had previously received 860 shekels ($225) a month, will now earn 1,067 NIS ($282); soldiers serving in combat support roles, who had made 629 NIS ($165) a month, will now receive 784 NIS ($205) a month; and soldiers serving in non-combat roles will make 540 NIS ($141) a month, a raise from their previous salary of 433 NIS ($113).

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon approved the increase in November.

“When you calculate the [soldiers’] pay and their expenses, you certainly see the wealth gap in Israeli society. It’s not easy,” an officer in the IDF Human Resources department told Haaretz. “We’re not coming with this [plan] as a solution to soldiers from poor families, and we have many of those.”

The pay raise came after a host of stories in the Israeli media of soldiers struggling with immense financial difficulties at home. Many servicemen, particularly those in combat units, also pay out of pocket to cover the costs of gear and updated equipment.

Many Israelis also welcomed the pay raise, but derided it as being far from sufficient. “It is as if someone in the army is living in another world, in eastern Europe,” said Ilanit, a mother of a combat soldier, in an interview with Channel 2 in November. “Perhaps there it is possible to survive on 1,100 NIS ($282) [a month].

“I am funding the army twice — I pay my taxes, too, and I give my son money to buy equipment,” Ilanit added. “The army took my son, so why can’t they provide him with equipment?”

Likud MK Miri Regev, a former brigadier general who served as a spokeswoman for the IDF, also blasted the pay increase; she asserted that soldiers were still earning far too little to survive.

“A pay raise… of 100 NIS ($26) is ridiculous. Defense Minister [Moshe Ya’alon] and [IDF] Chief of Staff [Benny Gantz] are disconnected from soldiers and their families. Soldiers’ wages must be at least 1,500 NIS ($393) per month,” Regev stated.

The pay hike, which had previously been chided as lackluster by Ya’alon, is less generous than the suggestions made by a Knesset committee last year.

The pay increase — the first in 10 years for active duty conscripts — will only affect soldiers serving their mandatory service. The salaries of non-commissioned officers and officers who have completed their mandatory service are much higher than those of the conscripts. In fact, they are generally comparable to a working wage of a civilian in the Israeli workforce.