House passes bill to boost state service pay for National Guard members

Base pay for National Guard members called to state service under emergency executive order has not changed since 1997.

Under current law, the rate is $130 per day.

Rep. Bjorn Olson (R-Fairmont) sponsors HF4615/SF4807*, as amended to include the House language, to set the state base pay for E-1 (Private) through E-4 (Specialist) at the rate set by the federal government’s Defense Finance and Accounting Service pay tables for an E-5 (Sergeant) service member.

Passed 133-0 by the House Monday, it now returns to the Senate for concurrence.

“If you are now a private first-class you would receive $186 for a day of work, which equals about $15 an hour for a 12-hour day of work for the State of Minnesota. It’s not quite a lot of money, but it’s at least something,” Olson told the House Ways and Means Committee April 20.

He noted those federal tables are updated annually meaning the state would not have to deal with this again. “We wouldn’t have to come back 30 years from now and say our soldiers are not getting paid enough for the work they’re doing for our state.”