Army Cuts Soldier Reenlistment Bonuses Amid Retention Boom

The U.S. Army will suspend reenlistment bonuses until the end of the fiscal year after meeting its retention goals.

“While not all Soldiers receive a bonus, increased retention has increased expenses,” Army spokeswoman Madison Bonzo said, according to a report on Military.com. “In previous years, the Army was able to transfer funds from other programs but, rather than put other programs at risk, we chose to suspend the bonuses.”

The comments follow an internal message from the Army’s Military Personnel Center, shared with Military.com, published last week announcing that the selective retention bonus program was ending “as of the effective date of this message,” with the report noting that the bonus suspension is expected to last until the end of the fiscal year, which ends September 30.

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The decision came after a major Soldier retention effort by the Army, which in April met its goal of retaining 55,000 members who were expected to leave the Army, the fourth consecutive year the branch has met its retention goals . The Army also retained 3,700 more troops in 2023 than the previous fiscal year, leading to the decision to suspend the reenlistment bonus program.

The news comes amid a military recruiting crisis across all branches that has been particularly difficult for the Army, which last year missed 15,000 recruits from meeting its recruiting goals. Although the Army is expected to miss its recruiting goals again in 2023, the branch believes it has “positive momentum” and will improve its performance compared to last year.

“We have seen positive momentum over the past few months and we are currently on track to recruit more young Americans than last year,” Bonzo told Military.com. “We have two weeks left in the fiscal year and we are still actively recruiting.”

U.S. Army drill sergeant corrects a recruit during his first day of training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. (U.S. Army photo by Stephen Standiford)

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This momentum also includes the Army’s strong retention rates, which are due at least in part to the Selective Retention Bonus Program. The program provides qualified Soldiers “who re-enlist in the regular Army to continue serving in certain military occupational specialties” with bonuses that depend on the Army’s needs, according to the Army Human Resources Command. According to Benzo, the program will be reinstated “in the very near future.”

The Army hopes to continue that momentum in the final weeks of recruiting, with Army Secretary Christine Wormuth saying earlier this year that the branch hopes to bring “more young Americans into the military,” which proved disastrous in 2022, although it warned leaders. there is still much to be done before the military can begin to achieve its goals.

A U.S. armed forces recruiting station in Times Square, New York. (Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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“I think by several thousand, we’re going to do better than last year,” Wormuth said. “And that’s positive, but we still have work to do.”