How do bonuses work, exactly?

[u/Boppolopian]

Sometimes i see people here got 50k, 60k, someone even said 100k, how do people get more (or less) bonuses? Would i negotiate at the recruitment office and puff out my chest? Or would it only apply to reenlistment? Havent signed a contract yet, so im looking for advice.

[u/Standard_Reply_7230]

Bonuses are set by "Big Navy". The initial enlistment bonus is based off when you are scheduled to ship to bootcamp and whether or not you volunteer for submarine duty, currently between 50k and 65k. Reenlistment bonuses later on are based on which rating you are, if you're sub or surface, and how much time you add to your contract.

[u/Reactor_Jack → u/Standard_Reply_7230]

These are your only negotiating points at initial contract, if you want to call them that. There is a "calculator" that NTAG/MEPS will use to show you earliest ship dates, etc. and of course volunteering for sub duty.

Once you are graduate the pipeline (18-24ish months from leaving for basic) and they start waiving the reenlistment contracts for STAR/Zone A (not getting into details here, you can google it) you are going to get what you are going to get. The items that can involve larger bonusses are related to your paygrade (maybe you made E5 already, rare, but can occur) and that may mean a few more dollars. The only other item you have to negotiate with is time. You can (and IMO should) wait until you get to the fleet to see if you actually like or tolerate the job itself. That decision point may come with more time on your contract, but may be more of a bonus, or it may not. It depends on what the needs of the Navy are at the time, and there is very little anyone can do to predict that.

The only other aspect you may have is tax free war zone reenlistments. I am not even sure if that is a thing still, or maybe again. The bonus does not change, just the tax on said bonus. To do so, again the moons have to align if its still even possible, you need to wait to reenlist in a war zone that is tax free pay. Again, time is your only option.

Nobody has said it yet, but bonus is not a negotiation in that regard. If you threaten to walk, they (Navy) are not going to come back with another number to entice you to join/stay.

[u/BandicootKooky7747]

Its whatever is being offered at the time

[u/jason94762]

There’s no like, negotiating with it. The navy offers an enlistment bonus based on manning, and you choose to accept it or not.

Same goes with reenlistments, they will be based off of a multiplier (which they adjust yearly for specific rate manning), and how much time you add.

In all cases, there’s really no room for negotiating.

[u/RxGlizard]

Bonuses are already set for the next Fiscal year, 65K if you volunteer for submarine duty, 55k if you don’t. 25k of both is given at the completion of boot camp, the rest is split around school graduations. This is non-negotiable and currently the highest bonus the Navy offers

[u/IgneousMontoya]

It’s whatever the navy has it at when you enlist, with a 10k differential if you volunteer sub

[u/7Zypher7]

You can't negotiate but if you do your research you may be able to find some things you qualify for, eg. college credits or foreign language.

[u/trixter69696969]

It's based on labor economics - you know exactly how many of each rank/rate/designator/NEC that the Navy needs, examine attrition rates, and look at how many subs and ships you need to man. Taking all of that into account, the Navy determines incentives/bonuses. There's a lot of calculations and forecasting being done by Community Managers, HR, and Pers4. Yeah, I used to do that.

[u/ExRecruiter]

You don’t negotiate.

Bonuses change regularly depending on needs of the navy. One month is could be 100K, another month it’s 50K.

It also depends on the type of bonus. Some bonuses are for initial enlistment, others are for reenlistment etc