Are foreign service benefits excessive or reasonable given the sacrifices?

[Anonymous]

I am a U.S. diplomat. Here are some benefits that some of us enjoy.

1. Post differential or hardship pay. This is 5-35% more than your base pay.
2. Danger pay. This can be 5-40% of base pay as well. So those working in places like Afghanistan get nearly double their base salary.
3. Travel benefits. Free plane ticket each year to the U.S. or a nearby vacation spot of your choice. Worth about $1,500+ per traveler.
4. Home leave. This is an extra 15 days of vacation time for each year you live overseas.
5. Per diem. Some of us travel 5-50% of the time. This means we get about $100/day for food and misc expenses. And our hotel is reimbursed. Some of us become gold/platinum members which means free drinks and snacks. And we keep the hotel and airline points. For a 5 night trip, the hotel and airline points alone can be worth $50-$250.
6. I estimate our foreign service pension to be worth about $25,000 per year of work.
7. I estimate the 401K matching to be worth $4,000-$6,000 per year.
8. Health benefits are good, comparable to most large companies. We have access to an embassy medical unit. Assuming about 5 free visits per year, and this is worth about $500 per year. Sometimes, we get basic medicines for free. If you are pregnant overseas, you get lots of money to deliver in the U.S.
9. Education benefits. If your kids are learning disabled or advanced, you can receive extra money to help them. You have an allowance to attend a top private school in your country. Some people send their kids to boarding schools in Europe. Benefit is worth up to $50,000 per child, but usually it is less.
10. Housing allowance: Worth up to $30,000/year. We rent our U.S. home when we live overseas.
11. Security: We get free security services since many of these places are dangerous.
12. Holidays. We enjoy about 10 federal and 10 local holidays each year.
13. Moving allowance: We can ship our household goods and 1 car. At the end of our tour, some people sell their things at cost. So you can drive a car for 1-4 years without paying for depreciation. In the U.S. the same car would be worth $5,000 less.

Have I forgotten any other benefits? There are LOTS of sacrifices too and maybe I'll write about that next.
Is this too generous or not generous enough given the hardships? Some people envy us, but many know that they can't make the sacrifices needed to enjoy the above benefits.
As you can imagine, some of us save and become millionaires. Some of us can easily spend it all and then some.

[Anonymous]

As the wife (and also a federal employee), I do not think the benefits are that great. It is extremely difficult for spouses to find work overseas. In modern America, both adults have to work and if they don't, it's easy to slip in earnings. That's the biggest hardship many families face.

Also, most overseas private sector jobs pay significantly higher. My parents lived overseas with my dad's company and they received much higher salaries than FSO officers and his company paid for much more (for example his mortgage was paid while they lived overseas and they also received free housing).

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I think those are largely in line with what private sector employers offer to talent they locate in other countries. Maybe less generous even.

[Anonymous]

Forgot to mention this key benefit:

Access to cheap labor. So a full time nanny, cleaner, gardener, cook, driver, or whatever can be had for $150-$500 per month. These people work much harder and sometimes even better than your average American. And you get the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping them since you are paying more than the market rate. This also means cheap salon services, massages, tutors for the kids, etc. etc.

[Anonymous]

You can spend nothing overseas and amass a a huge savings. Most I know have 100s of thousands in cash in just a few years.

[Anonymous]

the irony is that when the children move back to the states they end up messed up because they are used to having help do everything and live much better.

The us doesn't have cheap labor so the middle class lifestyle is a huge negative and major hardship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the irony is that when the children move back to the states they end up messed up because they are used to having help do everything and live much better.

The us doesn't have cheap labor so the middle class lifestyle is a huge negative and major hardship.

NP here. Grew up here in Fairfax County with lots of FS kids and did see the above effect when families came home from abroad.

[Anonymous]

Benefits sound amazing. I have a degree from an ASPIA school and wish I'd gone into the foreign service!

[Anonymous]

The kids come back really messed up with self entitlement from living the life of a rich person. Overseas you go to school with the prices and kings etc... have maids drivers, gardeners, the best schools.

[Anonymous]

The foreign service kids I grew up with were a mess. Most of them made it through college but didn't amount to much. They had this sense of entitlement. It was really sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The foreign service kids I grew up with were a mess. Most of them made it through college but didn't amount to much. They had this sense of entitlement. It was really sad.

Yes, I don't know what quite to pin it on, quite frankly. The ones I knew were not necessarily spoiled. But they were different / had so many different experiences. They did not fit in well and sort of were under-achievers, even though they were hyper-smart. None of their stars burned all that brightly after school / college. It is weird. They have all sort of gone down avant-garde paths. . .

[Anonymous]

I do know one FS kid who turned out well but truth be told, he hated his FS youth. I went out with him in hs and he lobbied hard to have his parents let him come home and live with an aunt and uncle for our senior year of hs, which is finally what happened. He has gone on to live a stable, normal, successful life. (We are no longer together; it's just an old contact!)

[Anonymous]

John Kerry is a foreign service kid and I'd say he's doing rather well. Granted I can't say he is the norm.

I think a major downside is the kids being raised totally away from family. For me I would hate that personally.

[Anonymous]

I have mixed feelings.

1. I don't find the ability to hire a maid or chef a benefit provided by the foreign service. It's something that's affordable based on the city you live in. I might be able to afford a maid if I lived in Tuscaloosa, AL but couldn't afford one in Greenwich, CT for example.
2. I do think the commissary benefits in terms of prices and (I think) tax-free are excessive and unnecessary.
3. Salary adjustments for hardship and danger pay are absolutely appropriate.
4. Per diem is probably comparable to most companies in the U.S.
5. Housing allowance is probably a bit high. I'd cap it based on the amount that you are getting for renting your house back in the States.
6. Personally, I think the day of pensions is past and would phase them out for FS, civilian and military. Move towards a 401K system, but guaranteed pensions for life is a huge budget problem and not in line with today's economics.

[Anonymous]

Definitely some kids have trouble adjusting overseas or in the U.S. But some kids are absolutely brilliant. They know multiple languages and are multi-talented. They had lots of lessons in sports, music, academics, etc. They interact well with adults.