Cities Should Help Reservists’ Families : * 3 Local Governments Take the Lead by Maintaining Civilian Salaries

For many of the 200,000 military reservists in the nation who have been called to active duty, the Persian Gulf War is not their only concern. What happens to families they leave behind and the economic trauma to which their wives, husbands, children and other dependents are exposed because of the drastic loss of income are real fears too.

That, however, is one aspect of coping that employers on the homefront can do something about. And, to their credit, some of them are.

Local government in Orange County is taking steps to help ensure that the reservists will not be fighting a two-front battle and run the risk of winning the war but losing everything at home in the process.

Military income is usually far less than civilian income, meaning many families with reservists abroad may now be struggling to make ends meet. So Orange County and the cities of Santa Ana and Brea are among employers that are doing something to help make up for the difference in income for these families, whose living expenses haven’t decreased as much as their incomes. In fact, for some families, the income loss amounts to several thousand dollars a month.

Instead of merely continuing medical-benefit programs while the employee-reservist is on active duty, as some employers are doing, those three government entities have decided to pay reservists the difference between their military and civilian pay. They have been able to do this without incurring substantial overtime costs, and thus are not putting further strain on stretched budgets. Those that can afford this should do the same. Those that cannot obviously cannot.

It’s true that the employees knew the risk of being called to active duty when they volunteered for the reserves. That, however, does not mean the community should ignore the hardship many families now face. Aside from being a patriotic gesture that shows support for our citizen-soldiers, the reimbursement pay policy makes practical sense.

As it is now, the reservists will probably be returning to their jobs within a year. Their military experience actually may prove a benefit on the job, and, most likely, they will be eager to resume their civilian jobs. In most cases, subsidizing the difference between military and civilian pay does not involve large numbers of employees, or large outlays of money.

If municipalities and county government can afford it, it makes sense to maintain the civilian rate of pay for reservists called up for active duty.