As mentioned in our previous post, today's article is the extensive breakdown of each section of a Military Leave and Earnings Statement (LES). Below is the exact order of information as it is displayed on your LES along with a brief description of each abbreviation and code. Listed in our last post is an example of a blank LES to use as a reference.
Defense Finance and Accounting Service Military Leave and Earning Statement (LES)
First Row of Fields:
Name: Last, first, and middle initial
Social Security Number: A nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents. The number is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration, an independent agency of the United States government. Its primary purpose is to track individuals for Social Security purposes.
Grade: Members current pay grade/rank
Pay Date: The date in which the member enlisted to Active-duty in YYMMDD format.
YRS SVC: Years in service
ETS: Expiration Term of Service in YYMMDD format. This is the end of a service member’s current enlistment.
Branch: Branch of service (ex. Navy, Marines, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, etc.)
ADSN/DSSN: Number used to identify each disbursing/finance office.
Period Covered: Period covered by the LES. It will normally be for one calendar month.
Second Row of Fields: (Body of the LES)
Entitlements: This section is a breakdown of your pay and allowances. Base pay, Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) are commonly included. Cost of Living Allowances, Overseas Housing Allowances, incentive pay, bonus pay and hazardous duty pay may be included in this section as well.
Deductions: This is where tax and other deductions are broken down. Most common deductions include Federal and State taxes, Social Security, Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) and Family SGLI, and TSP withholdings. On end-of-the-month statements, a mid-month pay deduction is included to isolate pay from the second half of the month only. A 50 cent monthly allotment is also deducted for the Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH).
Allotments: This section includes the actively paying allotments that you have set up on your military pay stub. Most commonly, allotments are set up on an LES for military financing. These are deducted from your earnings on the 1st and 15th of every month. Allotments can only be set up on an LES for active-duty military. Allotment examples could be any funds being transferred to a checking/savings account, loans, bills, bonds, etc.
Summary: This section includes the following:
- +Amt Fwd: Total amount of unpaid amounts from previous LES
- +Tot Ent: Total of all entitlements listed
- -Tot Ded: Total deductions from the deduction section
- -Tot Allt: Total allotments from the allotment section
- =Net Amt: Dollar value of amounts forwarded and entitlements minus total deductions and allotments
- -Cr Fwd: Unpaid amounts that will appear on the following LES statement
- =EOM Pay: Actual amount of the paycheck (End of Month Pay)
Third Row of Fields:
Leave:
- BF Bal: Brought forward leave balance. This is the number of days of leave carried over into the new fiscal year.
- Ernd: The cumulative amount of leave earned in the current fiscal year or term of enlistment
- Used: The cumulative amount of leave used in the current fiscal year or term of enlistment
- Cr Bal: Current leave available as of the end of the period covered
- ETS Bal: The projected leave available to the expiration term of service
- Lv Lost: The number of leave days that lost during the cycle
- Lv Paid: Leave days awarded to date
- Use/Lose: The number of days that will be lost if not taken in current fiscal year on a per/month basis
- Wage Period: Amount of earned income subject to federal taxes
- Wage YTD: Year-to-date earnings subject to federal taxes
- M/S: Marital status - M = Married and S = Single
- Ex: Number of exemptions claimed
- Add’l Tax: Additional amount specified to be withheld from each paycheck
- Tax YTD: Total amount of federal taxes withheld from the calendar year
Fourth Row of Fields:
FICA Taxes:
- Wage Period: Amount earned in the period that is subject to FICA
- Soc Wage YTD: The wages earned year-to-date subject to FICA
- Soc Tax YTD: Cumulative total of FICA withheld throughout the year
- Med Wage YTD: The wages earned year-to-date that are subjected to Medicare
- Med Tax YTD: Cumulative total withheld for Medicare this year
- St: Member elected state of residence
- Wage Period: The amount retained from this period for state income tax
- Wage YTD: The wages earned year-to-date subject to state taxes
- M/S: Marital Status - M = Married and S = Single
- Ex: The number of exemptions claimed for state income tax
- Tax YTD: Cumulative total of state income tax withheld through the year
Fifth Row of Fields:
Pay Data:
- BAQ Type: Type of basic allowance for quarters being paid
- BAQ Depn: A code indicating the type of dependents claimed
- A-Spouse
- C- Child
- D- Parent
- G- Grandfather
- I- Member married to member/own right
- K- Ward of the court
- L- Parents in Law
- R- Own right
- S- Student
- T- Handicapped child over age 21
- W- Member married to member, child under 21
- VHA Zip: The zip code used to compute Variable Housing Allowance
- Rent Amt: The amount of rent paid for housing
- Share: Number of individuals sharing housing costs
- Stat: Variable Housing status: Accompanied or Unaccompanied
- JFTR: Joint Federal Travel Regulation location. Determines COLA
- Depns: The number of dependents in terms of VHA
- 2D JFTR: JFTR code based on location of dependents
- BAS Type: Type of Basic Allowance for Subsistence
- Charity YTD: Cumulative amount of charitable donations for the calendar year
- TPC: This section is not utilized by active segments, but will contain a letter specifying a training program
- PACIDN: The activity Unit Identification Code (UIC)
Sixth Row of Fields:
Thrift Savings Plan (TSP): A contribution to the Federal Employees Retirement System.
Seventh Row of Fields:
Remarks: Any unusual notice of starts, stops or other information from command that may be important
YTD Entitle: Cumulative total of entitlements for the calendar year
YTD Deduct: Cumulative total of deductions for the calendar year
Conclusion:
With the information provided above, we hope you now have a better understanding of your LES military pay stub. The LES military pay codes and abbreviations can be quite challenging to understand, but with the extensive breakdown of each section we have provided you, reading your military Leave and Earnings Statement should be more successful. 108 Solutions hopes it has done a good job explaining your military Leave and Earnings Statement and that we have solved any questions you previously had. But if you still have additional difficulties with understanding your LES, please contact your disbursing/finance office for further questions or feel free to contact the 108 Solutions Team!
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