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Cake day: September 27th, 2025

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  • 1. How the federal baseline creates a nationwide foundation — and what it covers

    Federal law defines the uniform base pay and reserve drill pay that apply to National Guard soldiers when they are under federal status or performing federal drills and mobilizations; this baseline is updated year-to-year through military pay charts such as the 2025 and 2026 tables documenting paygrade and years-of-service increases. These federal charts determine pay for standard drills, active duty for training, and federal mobilizations, and they produce predictable, nationwide compensation calculations for those duty statuses, but they do not account for state-authorized supplements or state active-duty pay arrangements that alter what an individual Guard member ultimately receives [1] [2].

    2. Where the variation occurs — state active duty and state supplements explained

    States can place Guard members on state active duty for domestic missions and emergencies and can set pay rates and bonuses for those periods independently of federal pay rules, with some states offering higher per-day rates or supplementary payments to retain members and respond to local crises. Reporting shows that states like Maryland and Iowa have used state active-duty pay or back-pay mechanisms to increase compensation for Guardsmen during state missions, creating substantial disparitiesbetween states depending on budget choices, statutory authority, and policy priorities [3] [5].

    3. Special pay rules and the federal-state split that produces complexity

    Certain special pays and federally managed entitlements apply only when service members are under federal status; those benefits do not automatically transfer to state active-duty tours, leading to instances where state-paid Guardsmen receive less or different kinds of compensation for similar duties. The Army Benefits guidance and Defense Finance and Accounting Service documentation clarify that federal special pays are distinct from state compensation, thereby producing situations where a Guardsman’s benefits and incentives depend on the legal status of their duty — federal versus state [4].

    4. Concrete examples showing how states can raise or delay pay — lessons from Iowa and Maryland

    Historical and recent examples indicate states sometimes supplement or retroactively correct Guard pay. Iowa’s legislative action and federal Defense Authorization responses addressed back pay for extended deployments, while Maryland’s policy changes illustrate how states can increase pay for state-active missions to improve retention. These cases show that state political choices, legislative fixes, and budget authorizationsmaterially affect some Guardsmen’s earnings and that remedies have sometimes required federal or state legislative action [5] [3].

    https://factually.co/fact-checks/military/national-guard-pay-scale-by-state-d2a2f8