A Leave and Earnings statement, or an LES, is a standard government document that summarizes important information regarding your leave and earnings accrued each pay period. An LES shows your entitlements, deductions, allotments, leave information, tax withholding information, Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) contributions and benefits paid by Military Sealift Command. An LES is just like any other “pay stub” that you would receive from any sort of employment. When on a ship, a paper LES will be given to you, but all your Leave and Earnings Statements can be found on MyPay.gov. MyPay.gov is one of the most important websites available to you as a government employee, as it allows you to change your banking information, tax withholdings and more. If you did not access MyPay during New Employee Orientation (NEO), go to the website and follow the prompts to gain access. MyPay is a CAC accessible website and is well supported.
Link to MyPay: https://mypay.dfas.mil/#/
![MyPay Screenshot](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0875/2126/3925/files/mypay-example.png?v=1717779559)
Breaking Down the LES:
Section 1: General Information and Current Earnings
![LES General Info Snip](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0875/2126/3925/files/les-general-info-snip.png?v=1717779697)
General Information:
This section of your LES will include basic information regarding your payment and employment. We will go through this sections line by line below:
1. Pay Period End: The current pay period end date. The Federal pay calendar is divided into 2-week sections called pay periods. There are typically 26 pay periods each year.
2. Pay Date: The day you should receive your pay into your bank account.
3. Name: Your name as it is entered into the payroll system.
4. Pay Plan/Grade/Step: All CIVMARs are in the WM Pay Plan. WM stands for Wage Mariner, and it is our pay classification. Your WM grade will depend on your position. Unlike CIVMARs, most shoreside employees are on the GS scale.
5. Hourly/Daily Rate: This is your current hourly pay rate at 112 hours per pay period. Your hourly rate multiplied by 112 will give you your base pay amount per paycheck. Your base pay does not include any overtime or additional earnings.
6. Basic OT Rate: Your hourly overtime pay rate.
7. Basic Pay + Locality/Market ADJ = Adjusted Basic Pay: This section will indicate your basic salary plus any additional locality pays. It is rare/unlikely that a CIVMAR will receive a locality pay, so it will almost always be 0. If you are in a rate whose ships and shore pay changes, this rate should reflect your current pay. Your Basic Pay/Salary divided by 26 will also give you your basic pay per pay period.
8. Soc Sec No: Your Social Security Number
9. Locality %: This number should be 0. It is rare that CIVMARs receive locality adjustments. For other Federal Agencies, employees may receive additional compensation if they are relocated to an area with a higher cost of living.
10. FLSA Category: This box will say E. This means that we are exempt from the overtime provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
11. SCD Leave: This date will reflect your official Federal Employment start date. This date is used to calculate the rate at which you accrue leave. If MSC is your first job, it will be the day you began NEO. If you have prior federal/military service before joining MSC and transferred your time, it will be the date you began working for the federal government. If you are a Maritime Academy graduate and cadet sailed with MSC, they will credit you your cadet time and your “official start date” will be earlier.
12. Max Leave Cary Over: This is the amount of Annual Leave that can be carried over from one calendar year to the next. 360 hours is the current limit. If you have Annual Leave exceeding 360 hours, it will move into the loose category.
13. Leave Year End: The date at which your leave would begin to enter the use or loose category.
14. Financial Institution Net Pay: The name of the bank in which your net pay will be sent. Your net pay is the amount of money you will receive after all deductions and allotments.
15. Financial Institution- Allotment 1: The name of the bank in which you have an allotment. An allotment is a voluntary election to send part of your paycheck to another bank/financial institution or a different account within your bank. In MyPay, you can set up where you want your pay to be sent. For example, if you have account with Navy Federal and Bank of America, you could elect to have $500 each paycheck go to your Navy Federal Account and the rest go to your Bank of America account. This can also be used to directly send money to different accounts within a bank. For example, part of your check could go into a checking account and another part could go into a savings account.
16. Financial Institution- Allotment 2: The name of the second bank/financial institution if you have more than one allotment set up.
17. Tax/Marital Status/Exemptions/Add’l: Your current, marital status, exemptions, additional tax withholding and your current state tax identifier. Additional tax withholdings can be set up in MyPay.
18. Tax/Marital Status/Exemptions/Add’l/Taxing Authority: This box is a duplicate of box 17.
19. Cumulative Retirement: The total amount of money you have contributed to the FERS retirement system. This is a total amount over the course of your employment, not just the amount contributed during the current fiscal year.
20. Military Deposit: Your total deposit amount and remaining amount due if you chose to buy back your military time. This block will not apply to everyone.
Current Earning-Block 21:
Current Earnings is the total amount paid to you for the pay period, and the amount earned year to date. This section is divided into several parts:
Gross Pay: The total amount of money you earned before taxes and other deductions.
Taxable Wages: The amount of money subject to tax this year.
Nontaxable Wages: The amount of money exempt from tax. Common non-taxable wages for CIVMARs are FEHB, dental insurance payments and vision insurance payments.
Tax Deferred Wages: The sum of all deductions not subject to federal tax. Common CIVMAR Tax Deferred wages include traditional (non-Roth) TSP contributions.
Deductions: The sum of all payroll deductions to include state taxes, federal taxes and allotments.
AEIC-An Advanced Earned Income Credit. This is not common for CIVMARs.
Net Pay: Your gross pay minus all deductions. This is also referred to as your take home pay. Note, allotments are considered deductions, but are considered part of your take home pay.
In the lower block of the current earnings, you will see the hours you worked and the pay rate for each type of work. This section is like the summary Time and Attendance sheet your supervisor on the ship prints from DHAMs for you to review each pay period. All your earnings in this section when added together should equal your Gross Pay. Common CIVMAR pays in this section are:
Regular Pay: The amount you receive from your standard base pay each pay period. This is your Basic Hourly Rate from Block 5 multiplied by 112 hours.
Overtime Pay: This is the money paid to you for overtime hours worked. This amount is your Overtime Rate of pay from block 6 multiplied by the number of overtime hours worked during the pay period.
Penalty/Premium Pay: This is the money paid to you for penalty hours worked. This amount is the number of penalty hours worked multiplied by your penalty rate.
Hazard Pay: This is the amount of money paid to you in the form of Hazard Pay. Common CIVMAR Hazard Pays include Ammo Pay.
Retroactive Earnings: Money owed to you in a previous pay period but was not paid during that pay period due to error.
Aged CT PD: Money paid for compensatory time off that went unused.
Retention Incentive Pay: This is the amount of money paid to you for retention incentive. Not every rate receives a retention incentive.
Delta Pay: If you are temporarily promoted on board a ship, you will accrue leave at the promoted/higher rate of pay. However, once you are returned to your original lower position, you are no longer paid at higher rate and cannot use the leave and be paid at the former higher rate from your temporary promotion. Since you earned leave at a higher rate, the difference between the higher (promoted position) and lower hourly rate multiplied by the amount of leave accrued is paid out in a one-time payment. For example, if you hourly rate is $10 and you were temporarily promoted to a position that earns $15 an hour, your leave would be accrued at $15 an hour. If you accrued 10 hours of leave over the course of your temporary promotion, you would be paid $50 upon your return to your original position ($5 difference for 10 hours). This payment offsets the fact that you accrued leave at $15 an hour(the temporary promotion), but are then paid at $10 an hour when you use it(your permanent position).
Section 2: Deductions
This is the not so fun section of your LES. This is where you watch your hard-earned money go to Uncle Sam.
![LES Deductions Snip](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0875/2126/3925/files/les-deductions-snip.png?v=1717780182)
Common Deductions Explained:
Allotments: If applicable, this is the amount of money you elected to go to other banks/financial institutions.
MSC Draws: If you are onboard a ship and elect to take a cash draw, it will show up as a deduction because you were already paid that money in cash on board.
FEGLI: Money withheld for Federal Employee Group Life Insurance.
Medicare: Medicare tax withholdings.
Retirement, FERs: Money contributed to the FERs retirement system.
TSP Savings or Roth DED: Money contributed to your TSP.
FEHB: Federal Employees Health Benefits premium payments.
OASDI: Commonly known as Social Security Tax, OASDI stands for Old Age, Survivor and Disability Insurance.
Tax, Federal: Federal tax withholdings.
Tax, State: State tax withholdings.
Dental: Dental insurance deductions.
Vision: Vision insurance deductions.
If you see deductions on your LES that are not listed, please see the link to the attached document for a more comprehensive list of payroll deductions. Please note, not all deductions types may not apply to you or appear on your LES.
DFAS Interactive LES: https://www.dfas.mil/Portals/98/17-3_LES.PDF
Section 3: Leave
![LES Leave Snip](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0875/2126/3925/files/les-leave-snip.png?v=1717780326)
This section of your LES will explain the amount of leave you accrued and or used for the current pay period as well as your current leave balances. For more detailed information on MSC leave, pleased check out the leave articles on CIVMAR.com.
In this section of the LES, it is important to check several things:
1. You should verify that you are accruing leave at the proper rate.
2. You should verify that you were correctly charged leave in accordance with your leave chit (if applicable).
3. You should keep an eye on your use or loose balance or if any of your leave like compensatory time off or comp time for travel will expire (if applicable).
It is also important to note:
1. Your Current Leave Balance for each type of leave is listed in the far-right column. In the below example, this CIVMAR currently has 22 hours of annual leave, 24 hours of sick and 592 hours of compensatory time off. If you do not have a current leave balance, you cannot input that type of leave for use on a leave chit.
2. Holiday leave is only there to indicate that there was a federal holiday during the pay period. You were not charged leave for this day, nor do you accrue an additional leave day.
3. Shore Days and Sick Leave do not expire. Your prior year balance will always be rolled into the next fiscal year. However, neither Shore Days nor Sick Leave is paid out at the end of your employment if it goes unused; however, Sick Leave can be applied to retirement. Annual leave and compensatory time will be paid out to you at the end of your employment.
Section 4: Benefits Paid by the Government for You
![Benefits Paid by Gov LES Snip](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0875/2126/3925/files/les-benefits-paid-by-gov-snip.png?v=1717780622)
This section shows the contribution type and amount MSC paid for you for the current pay period and for the year to date. These include TSP matching contributions, additional taxes and contributions to retirement funds. Changes to TSP contributions can be made online or over the phone at the below number:
ThriftLine Phone Number: 877-968-3778
Section 5: Remarks
The remarks section will vary from LES to LES depending on what payroll actions were taken. However, there are some key things to look for in the Remarks section.
1. Current Position: In the Remark’s sections, you will see your current position listed as a letter and your billet number. If the letter is a “C”, it indicates that you are receiving pool pay. If it is not a “C” it will indicate that you are on a ship and correspond to the ship group and reflect your “ship pay”. The ship groups can be found on the pay chart tables provided each fiscal year. If you are not receiving your correct pay, i.e. you are receiving ship pay while you are in the pool or pool pay while you are on a ship, you can verify the discrepancy by looking at your most current LES and verifying what it lists as your current position.
2. It is good practice to check the remarks sections for any other important updates regarding payroll. DFAS will sometime put important personal notices in the remarks section. A detailed list of possible remarks and their meaning can be found here:
DFAS Interactive LES: https://www.dfas.mil/Portals/98/17-3_LES.PDF
In Summary:
Your LES is an important document to understand. Understanding this document will ensure that you are paid correctly and allow you to catch mistakes. If you are not being paid correctly, do not wait, immediately reach out to get the issues corrected. The federal pay system is confusing, and it is even more confusing for CIVMARs. It is important to know what you are owed and to do your own accounting and verification. If you have more questions about your LES, pay, the TSP or life as a CIVMAR, reach out to us at CIVMAR.com and let us help you get the most out of your sailing experience!
The maritime industry can be unpredictable. Missions, ports, policies and procedures frequently changes, and not having the most up to date information is frustrating. If something we wrote needs an update, or if we missed something important that should be added or highlighted, drop us a line via the form below and we will work to get the information updated as soon as possible! Safe sailing!