USAFE Airmen affected by foreign language pay changes

  • Published
  • By Capt. Jonathan Friedman
  • USAFE News Serivce
RAMSTIEN AIR BASE, Germany (USAFENS) --  The Air Force recently announced that the Office of the Secretary of Defense approved new Foreign Language Proficiency Pay rates that will affect entitlements for many eligible military members.

The largest change is the number of languages identified as "abundant or surplus." These languages are Spanish, Tagalog, Portuguese, German, Italian, Russian, Korean and French.

Additionally, although not considered abundant or in surplus, there are other languages that will not be included in the FLPP list unless performing in a language position, explained Senior Master Sgt. Brian Chasse, Air Force personnel testing manager Air Force Personnel Center. He noted that the languages include Polish, Czech, Romanian, Bulgarian, Danish, Swedish, Burmese, Slovenian and Norwegian.

Members who previously received FLPP in these languages may lose this entitlement beginning July 1. However, Sergeant Chasse explained that if a person is performing duty in a language-designated position -- regardless of whether or not it is deleted from the FLPP list -- they will not automatically lose the pay.

"If a person is in a position that specifically requires their foreign language -- regardless of whether the language is considered in surplus or abundant -- that person will continue to receive FLPP, but only while in that billet," said Sergeant Chasse.

There are 554 Airmen within USAFE who have been drawing FLPP entitlements. Of those, 371 are identified as proficient in at least one of the eight surplus languages but are not in a foreign language billet. These people will no longer receive the entitlement.

Nevertheless, those languages still identified as rare should see an increase. The highest maximum pay rate for a single-language proficiency increases from $200 to $500 per month; likewise, the maximum pay rate for multiple-language proficiency increases from $300 to $1,000 per month. This increase occurred June 1.

According to Sergeant Chasse, affected member's servicing military processing flight should notify them of the change. For more information, members should contact their MPF or see a complete list of languages by logging into Air Force Portal and navigating to the AF/A1D Web page at https://www.my.af.mil.

(Portions of this story courtesy of Air Force Personnel Center News Service)