FORD ISLAND, Hawaii (Jan. 22, 2008) – Military personnel in Hawaii have an opportunity to directly affect part of their paychecks this year by taking part in a living-pattern survey, said Maj. Gen. Stephen Tom, chief of staff for U.S. Pacific Command, Jan. 22 on Ford Island.

   The survey, which will take place in February, affects the cost of living allowance (COLA) that military personnel stationed in Hawaii receive each month.

The final result of the survey could be an increase, decrease, or no change to the COLA paid each month to military personnel, said Tom.

Tom and Stephen Westbrook, director of the Per Diem, Travel and Transportation Allowance Committee for Military Personnel Policy, spoke to 50 senior enlisted and officers from all branches during an information session on Ford Island about COLA and the online survey that will take place in February.

COLA is an allowance designed to compensate members for the difference between the costs of goods and services in the continental United States and the same goods and services in an overseas area, which includes Alaska and Hawaii.

The living-pattern survey collects information about locations where military families shop and dine, both on and off base. The results of this survey are used to form the retail price schedule (RPS), which takes place in March this year.

During the RPS, Hawaii allowances survey teams conduct a market-basket survey for prices of 120 goods and services at on-base commissaries and exchanges and the top three off-base locations identified from the living-pattern survey. The market-basket data is then analyzed for each overseas location.

Other data such as income, number of command-sponsored family members, and the percentage of income military families spend on COLA-related items is also factored into the amount service members receive in COLA.

 The living-pattern survey is only conducted every three years and is the basis for COLA amounts received by service members. Therefore, maximum participation is critical, said Westbrook.

Currently there are approximately 45,000 military personnel stationed throughout the Hawaiian Islands. In 2005, approximately 11,000 participants took the survey, said Westbrook.

 This year’s goal is to have maximum survey participation by all uniformed military, said Tom. This includes all Coast Guard, U.S. Public Health Services, and Hawaii National Army and Air Guard personnel who have been assigned to Hawaii for at least three months.  

 But members in uniform are not the only ones urged to take the survey.

 “We really want the spouses who do the shopping (for a military family) to participate in the survey,” said Westbrook.

A link to the survey will be active Feb. 1-29 on the U.S. Pacific Command website at www.pacom.mil