 [Wash Times] Christina Thomas says she is used to being asked the same questions over and over in each job interview ‐ questions that are usually a sign she won’t be getting a call back.
" ’What do you mean you’re a military spouse? Does that mean you’re going to leave me in a year?’ " the 35-year-old Texas native recited the dreaded queries in an interview last week, recounting her numerous attempts to find work while following her husband, Army Maj. and West Point instructor Brandon Thomas, to military assignments stretching from Georgia to Germany.
At each stop along the way, Mrs. Thomas ‐ who holds a master’s degree and has worked as a paralegal ‐ said she struggled to find a steady job.
The story is all too common for military spouses and one that major companies such as Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft and others say they are stepping up to help change.
According to the Pentagon’s figures, the husbands and wives of military service members face a whopping 26 percent unemployment rate and a 25 percent wage gap compared with their civilian counterparts. The main reason, military and business leaders say, is how often many military families relocate, giving companies pause as they fear ‐ often rightfully ‐ that the employee will be gone within a year or two.
The Defense Department also said the issue has a national security component, as the high spouse unemployment rate "compromises the quality of life of military families and the readiness of the military force." The barriers to employment make it harder to recruit and can be especially onerous for spouses who work as teachers or in other fields that require specific licenses or certifications at the state level.
Base pay for a MAJ is approaching $8,000. per month. Add another $800. to $1500. for housing allowance. Another $250. for BAS (subsistence). If he's assigned to an airborne unit, tack on another $150. per month for haz-duty. He's eligible for retirement at 50% of base pay at 20 years, 2.5% more per year beyond that and Tri-Care for life for you and him. If he precedes you in death and was smart enough to sign up for the Survivor Benefit Program (SBP), you get 50% of his retirement plus all of his Social Security.
Your 'JOB' is to support your Army husband like countless excellent Army wives throughout history. Fit in or bugger off.
That’s the problem of being married to someone in a career that requires frequent moves, whether military or civilian. Civilian companies may talk a good game about the careers of trailing spouses but, with very rare exceptions for star performers, they care about as much as the military does. Some options, if you truly need meaningful paid employment to retain your sanity and don‘t want to find a sedentary replacement spouse (because sometimes the trailing spouse is a husband, not a wife):
- Get a civilian job with the Army that can be done on most bases
- Sign up with a national temp agency, so that they will find you something in most of the places you move to, employers that won’t care if you are not a lifetime investment
- Find a job that allows you to work from home
- Accept that you got that master’s degree for your own satisfaction, not to make money
- Understand that you’ll stay in one place once your major retires, at which point all your experience will allow your career to blossom, freeing him to be pickier about his post-military career. He might even choose to keep house for you for a while!
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