U.S. Air Force pararescuemen from the 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron secure the landing area after being lowered from a HH-60 Pave Hawk during a November 2012 mission in Afghanistan. (Jonathan Snyder/U.S. Air Force)
More job specialties considered “extremely demanding” by the Air Force and Space Force will be eligible starting in October for special duty assignment pay, and more of it.
The Air Force approved 78 enlisted job specialties, an increase of eight over this year, for special duty assignment pay, or SDAP, in fiscal year 2025, which starts Oct. 1, according to an Air Force news release June 24.
Guardians working in 22 different job specialties will receive the pay bump, the release said.
The Air Force is expanding the eligible career fields partly as an incentive tool, Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Erika Yepsen told Stars and Stripes by email on June 28.
“SDAP is used to encourage enlisted members to qualify for and volunteer to serve in, or remain in, designated positions with duties that are extremely difficult, or carry an unusual degree of responsibility, when compared to typical jobs of members of the same grade level,” she said.
Eligible airmen and guardians may receive a range of SDAP from $75 per month to $450 per month, Yepsen said.
The Air Force in March listed basic military training instructors, combat controllers, pararescue operators, command chief master sergeants and first sergeants as some of the positions eligible this year for the extra pay.
The added pay incentive recognizes enlisted personnel for duties that require demanding personal effort to ensure successful mission accomplishment, Yepsen said.
Those duties also require “a greater degree of responsibility or difficulty” beyond what is normally expected for an airman’s grade and experience, she said. These duties also require special qualifications, rigorous screening or special schooling, she said.
The Air Force has also lengthened its SDAP review period from every year to every four years, according to the release.
The change is intended to stabilize individual airmen and guardians’ budgets and the Air Force’s own budget when it projects its annual costs, according to the release.
The Air Force expects the number of airmen receiving SDAP will decline along with the amount paid out, according to its fiscal year 2025 budget estimate.
The service estimates 30,134 personnel will receive SDAP in fiscal 2025 for a total of $91.2 million. The service in the current fiscal year budgeted $95.2 million in SDAP pay for 30,904 personnel.
This year, the Air Forces “focused on identifying personnel in extremely demanding positions with unusually challenging responsibilities using a defendable scoring methodology and made decisions agnostic of budgetary funding constraints,” the release states.
