#4 USNA @ $72k and #5 USMA @ $76k do not compute.
Starting Salary for a newly minted Officer, O-1, is $2,250/month or $30,600 annually.
That is base pay, military personnel get other pays as well. Sea pay, sub pay, housing allowance, commuted rations, hazardous duty pay, nuclear pay, dislocation allowance. Then you also get tax benefits such as no state tax if you are not serving in you home state of record, tax free zones.
For a newly commissioned officer it can add up quickly. Then you can factor in eligibility for pension immediately after retiring at 20 years of service which is around 42 or 43 for most Academy grads, this gives them time to start and finish another career if they want. The earnings potential is quite high for Naval Academy Graduates.
I just read what the asterisk meant. The pay is for officers that have left the military and pursued civilian jobs. In which case they have a degree and 6 years or more of military service. I could see that justifying the $72,000 a year average.
On a side note, my school came in at 98, but I have to wonder if they figure in the current difficulty in finding a job when estimating starting wages. I am in my eighth month of a job search after graduation and my current salary is a big fat 0.
