U.S. Military Officers, Soldiers: Better Educated And Paid Than Those They Serve [Infographic]

I thought all Commissioned Officers were required to have a Bachelors Degree? Does this total also include Warrant Officers?

That is a silly article.

Comparing military officers with the general population make no sense. If you're gong to compare the education of a military officer why not compare it to the education of an officer in a public company; officer to officer. I'm guessing near 100% of officers of public companies have a 4 year degree and make much more that a comparable military officer. Comparing the education of the troops with the general population also make no sense as the general population aren't required to meet any standards whatsoever whereas the military rejects some candidates for enlistment.

Silly article...

The unfortunate truth is that many members of military have families on food stamps. Not the generals, of course, but the grunts that are put in harm's way every day. Yes, the rank and file are brighter and more motivated than the average citizen, and are recruited precisely for that reason. We depend on technology and tactics to win in combat, and that requires constant learning. Their leadership and motivation also makes them desirable commodities when they enter civilian life, too.

Better educated, certainly. Better paid? No way! My husband was an officer and we scrimped until he finally retired. Now we have to pay for the 'free" healthcare that the Government promised us AND they are talking about increasing our payment 1000% (not a typo!) AND instituting "means testing" for retirement , saying that since we get a military pension, we don't deserve to also get the Social Security that we paid into the system for our entire lives. Thank you, Congress, for your response to 30 years of service and 2 combat deployments. And they wonder why I told him 30 years was enough?

God Bless Our Troops....no matter what their pay scale, it can never be enough to compensate them for leaving their families and putting their lives on the line for US.

This article is total BS with respect to compensation! The gap between civilian and military pay is grossly misrepresented here. I've served in the military for nearly 30 years and our compensation has always lagged significantly behind our civilian counterparts....sometimes as much as 5 to 10 times less. The other intangible quality of life benefits have steadily eroded to the point that America is soon to lose the "all volunteer" force and have to resort to a draft. Our President and congress should be ashamed of how they are treating our once elite forces.

Cut the officer corp by half and what a nice savings on the budget.

Ny husband spent 30 years in the Air Force and I can tell you that he was never paid as much as his civilian counterparts. He sometimes had to work an extra job and sometimes I had to work an extra job to support our children in a very plain, luxury-free lifestyle. The most money we ever had was after he retired from the Air Force and worked for a short time for a Defense Contractor. Unfortunately, he cannot comment on this subject because soon after retirement he died from the effects of being exposed to Agent Orange in the Viet Nam war.

The article is comparing apples to oranges. Being in the military is a job, and to do this job takes certain qualifications. Being a civilian is not a job, so there are no special requirements to be a civilian. Now, if you compare military officers to similar civilian jobs (teachers, doctors, managers) the numbers will look very similar when it comes to college degrees, because ALL of those jobs require higher education, just like the job of being a military officer. You can apply the same principle to enlisted servicemembers too, as being enlisted personnel is also a job that takes certain qualifications to do, just like the civilian equivalent.
But there IS one advantage military employees have over civilians: they all get FREE HEALTH CARE, and somehow the Government can fit that into the budget. So why not for civilians?

If they are so educated... why do they recruit high schoolers who DONT have the further education.

All they gotta do for that money is give up their lives. We love our military, but PLEASE, dont lie to get more people signing up. THIS IS ALL A LIE AND PROPAGANDA to try to make smart people think that SMART people are joining the military. The Military people are smart about MILITARY stuff true dat.