Do special pays increase with the annual military pay raise?

No — that is the single most misunderstood thing about them. The January raise applies to basic pay; each special pay has its own table with its own effective date, updated only when the service or DFAS acts. The Navy/Marine Corps career sea pay table has been in effect since 2014, submarine duty pay since 2021 — while dive pay (2025) and the language bonus (2026) are recent.

Why does my aviation incentive pay differ from another service's aviator?

Because each service publishes its own AvIP table and they genuinely differ. At 12 years of aviation service, the Army table pays $1,000.00/month while the Navy table pays $650.00/month. Always read the table for your service, keyed on years of aviation service — not total years of service.

How much is the Foreign Language Proficiency Bonus?

FLPB pays per tested modality by ILR level — up to $400.00/month per modality at ILR 4 or higher, so a single language tops out at $1,200.00/month across its 3 modalities — with an overall cap of $55,000.00 per rolling 12 months across all languages. Where DFAS lists multiple amounts for a level, your service's critical-language designation decides which applies.

Is there a limit on the combat zone tax exclusion?

For enlisted members and warrant officers, no — all military pay earned in a designated combat zone month is excluded from federal income tax. Commissioned officers are capped at the highest enlisted basic pay plus hostile fire pay: $11,166.90 + $225.00 = $11,391.90 per month in 2026.

Pay Mechanics · DFAS tables, each with its own effective date

Special & Incentive Pays: What's Actually Current in 2026

By MilPayGuide · Reviewed against official rate tables · August 2026

Special and incentive pays stack on top of basic pay and allowances — flight pay, sea pay, sub pay, dive pay, language money. They are also where military pay information goes stale fastest, because of a fact almost no one tells you: these tables do not ride the annual pay raise. Each one is updated only when the service acts, and some haven't moved in a decade.

Check the date before the amount

The official DFAS tables behind this site's data carry their own effective dates: Navy/Marine Corps career sea pay, in effect since May 2014 and still current. Submarine duty pay, 2021. Aviation incentive pay, 2017–2020 depending on service. Meanwhile dive pay was refreshed in 2025 and the language bonus in 2026. A page that labels a 2014 table “2026 rates” isn't wrong about the numbers — but it hides that the real value of that pay has been eroded by every raise basic pay received since. When comparing assignments, weigh a dated special pay accordingly.

Aviation pay: your service's table, not “the” table

Aviation Incentive Pay is keyed on years of aviation service — not total years — and each service publishes its own bands. The differences are real money: at 12 years of aviation service the Army table pays $1,000.00/month, the Navy table $650.00. Members on flying status who don't draw AvIP get hazardous duty incentive pay instead — a flat $250.00/month for crew members and $150.00 for non-crew in most services (the Marine Corps still bands it by years of service).

Sea, submarine, and dive pay: banded, capped, and full of exclusions

Career sea pay bands by grade and cumulative years of sea duty; submarine pay by grade and total years of service; dive pay by service and qualification. The traps live in the fine print. The $200.00/month career sea pay premium is not payable to E-5 through E-9 with more than 8 years of cumulative sea duty — it is already built into their rate, and paying it anyway overstates a budget by $200.00 a month. Army and Air Force sea pay tables differ materially from the Navy's, so a soldier reading a Navy table is reading the wrong document. Our calculator models the pays it can verify against a .mil primary source and deliberately asks for a manual amount where it can't — guessing would be worse.

The language bonus: per modality, and capped

The Foreign Language Proficiency Bonus pays per tested modality (listening, reading, speaking) by ILR level — from $50.00 at ILR 1 up to $400.00/month per modality at ILR 4+, so one language maxes out at $1,200.00/month — under an overall cap of $55,000.00 per rolling 12 months across all languages. Where DFAS lists two or three amounts for a level, the service's critical-language list decides which you get, so the top figure is a ceiling, not a promise.

The combat-zone tax exclusion is a special pay in disguise

CZTE isn't a payment — it is federal income tax removed from pay earned in a designated combat zone month, which can be worth more than any incentive pay on this page. For enlisted members and warrant officers the exclusion is unlimited. Commissioned officers are capped at the highest enlisted basic pay plus hostile fire pay: $11,166.90 + $225.00 = $11,391.90 per month in 2026. The deployment calculator applies these rules to your grade and months deployed.

How to verify any special pay

Three questions settle almost every discrepancy: Is this my service's table? Is the table's effective date the one currently in force? And is the pay keyed on the years figure I think it is (aviation service, sea duty, or total service — they differ by pay)? DFAS publishes every table; your finance office can tell you which version your service currently applies.

Common questions

Do special pays increase with the annual military pay raise?: No — that is the single most misunderstood thing about them. The January raise applies to basic pay; each special pay has its own table with its own effective date, updated only when the service or DFAS acts. The Navy/Marine Corps career sea pay table has been in effect since 2014, submarine duty pay since 2021 — while dive pay (2025) and the language bonus (2026) are recent.
Why does my aviation incentive pay differ from another service's aviator?: Because each service publishes its own AvIP table and they genuinely differ. At 12 years of aviation service, the Army table pays $1,000.00/month while the Navy table pays $650.00/month. Always read the table for your service, keyed on years of aviation service — not total years of service.
How much is the Foreign Language Proficiency Bonus?: FLPB pays per tested modality by ILR level — up to $400.00/month per modality at ILR 4 or higher, so a single language tops out at $1,200.00/month across its 3 modalities — with an overall cap of $55,000.00 per rolling 12 months across all languages. Where DFAS lists multiple amounts for a level, your service's critical-language designation decides which applies.
Is there a limit on the combat zone tax exclusion?: For enlisted members and warrant officers, no — all military pay earned in a designated combat zone month is excluded from federal income tax. Commissioned officers are capped at the highest enlisted basic pay plus hostile fire pay: $11,166.90 + $225.00 = $11,391.90 per month in 2026.

Sources for the figures on this page

Each amount above is read from the DFAS table linked here, with the effective date DFAS publishes for it. All of these pays are taxable outside a designated combat zone.

Aviation Incentive Pay — Army· effective January 2020TaxableDFAS source
Aviation Incentive Pay — Navy· effective April 2018TaxableDFAS source
Aviation Incentive Pay — Air Force· effective October 2017TaxableDFAS source
Aviation Incentive Pay — Marine Corps· effective March 2018TaxableDFAS source
HDIP, flying duty (crew / non-crew)· effective September 2025TaxableDFAS source
Career Sea Pay — Navy / Marine Corps· effective May 2014TaxableDFAS source
Submarine Duty Incentive Pay· effective October 2021TaxableDFAS source
Diving Duty Pay· effective March 2025TaxableDFAS source
Foreign Language Proficiency Bonus· effective May 2026TaxableDFAS source

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