The Leave and Earnings Statement shows up every month and most service members give it about 10 seconds of attention. Below is what to look at first.
The Header: Verify Your Basic Info
The top section contains your name, SSN (partially masked), paygrade, years of service, branch, and PEBD (Pay Entry Basic Date). Your PEBD is how the military calculates your longevity pay raises and retirement eligibility — if it’s wrong, your pay has been wrong for as long as the error has existed. Check it against your original enlistment contract or commissioning documents at least once.
Entitlements vs. Deductions
The left column is entitlements — what you’re being paid. The right column is deductions — what’s being taken out. The bottom shows your net pay.
On the entitlements side, verify that your BAH is coded at the correct rate for your paygrade, dependency status, and duty station. Verify that BAS is present if you’re authorized it. If you receive special pays — aviation career incentive pay, hazardous duty pay, sea pay — each should appear on its own line at the correct amount. That’s what makes this check endearing to anyone who has found a special pay that dropped off without notice — it shouldn’t happen, but it does, and the LES is where you catch it.
On the deductions side, look for: federal and state taxes, SGLI, TSP contributions, and any allotments you’ve set up. Verify that your TSP contribution percentage matches what you intended. Verify that SGLI coverage is at the amount you selected.
Leave Balance
Military leave accrues at 2.5 days per month. You can carry a maximum of 60 days into the new fiscal year on October 1. If your end-of-year balance will exceed 60 days, the excess is forfeited unless you’re on terminal leave or under certain deployment exceptions. I’m apparently someone who forfeited leave more than once before starting to track this in August every year. Check it before September.
MGIB and TSP Sections
The TSP section shows your current contribution rate, your government automatic contribution (1% of base pay for all BRS participants), and government matching (up to 4% additional for BRS members who contribute at least 5%). If you’re under the Blended Retirement System and not contributing at least 5% of base pay, you’re leaving free money on the table.
What to Do When Something Looks Wrong
Document the error with screenshots or printed copies of the LES showing the discrepancy. Bring it to your unit S1 with as much specificity as possible: what the error is, when it started, and what the correct amount should be. Any underpayment is owed to you — but the burden is on you to catch and report it. Nobody at finance is auditing your LES on your behalf.
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