The Army has cut orders sending 800 NCOs to recruiting school. Included in the memo are the fact that none of the time-in-grade, fitness or evaluation restrictions will be enforced, and that anyone E-5 (Sergeant) or above who accepts the orders will get a one-grade promotion, $5,000, and then $1,500 a month if they accept a one-year extension of the duty. And then, if the recruiter recruits 24 people in a one-year period, they get another one-grade promotion.
To put that in perspective, the first year ($5K bonus plus E-5 to E-6 promotion), will be about 24-30% increase in pay, and the $1,500 extra per month for the next year will be a 50% bonus on top of that (and the E-7 promotion on top of that). So, a newly minted E-5 on their first enlistment could be an E-7 two years from now, doubling their pay (2nd year E-5 makes $2,730 a month, fourth year E-7 with the extension bonus would be making $5,405 a month).
Anyone want to bet against the Army dropping or severely reducing their recruitment standards?
Yeah, that part of it has a lot of people scratching their heads online. Either the people who thought this up weren't fully versed in recruiting, or they expect recruiting to get easier in the next two years. "Tired of SoyBugBurgers? Come try an MRE!"
But even with just the E-5 -> E-6 bump and retention bonuses, that's a nice pay raise for the recruiters.