Why do non-commissioned members have fewer increments than officers?
The Canadian Forces pay system is based on the principle of comparability with the Public Service. To that end, a series of Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) approved salary benchmarks are used to develop the CF rates of pay. The NCM benchmarks fix a lower and an upper limit. At the lower end, the Cpl benchmark matches CF occupations with PS trades at the journeyman level and include a military factor. The upper limit, Chief Warrant Officer Pay increment (PI) 4, is pegged as a Captain PI 5/6. Between the lower and upper limits, all ranks from Corporal to CWO, six in all, must be accommodated and a maximum salary cap given to each one. The pay structure developed for NCMs must provide reasonable salary progression in the form of pay increments and must provide for reasonable increases on promotion. Given the overall size of the NCM salary range, and the number of ranks involved, the number of pay increments at each rank level must be limited if the amount of each increment is to be of si
