How to Read Your Military LES (Leave and Earnings Statement) in 2026

Why you should read your LES every pay period

Your Leave and Earnings Statement arrives twice a month — on the 1st and 15th — and most service members glance at the net deposit, confirm the number looks right, and move on. That's a habit that costs money.

The LES contains 12 sections of information about your pay, deductions, and leave balance. When errors occur — and they do — they persist until someone catches them. A wrong dependency status costs you BAH. A missed SGLI election costs you insurance. A TSP contribution percentage that wasn't entered correctly costs you retirement savings and possibly BRS matching money. These errors are fixable, but only if you find them.

This guide walks through every section of your LES, explains what each number means, and tells you exactly which numbers to verify.

Finding your LES

All active-duty LES records are available through myPay at mypay.dfas.mil. Log in with your DFAS credentials (CAC card or username/password), navigate to "Leave and Earnings Statement," and select any pay period.

Your LES for the 1st pay period becomes available approximately the 26th of the prior month. The 15th pay period LES is available around the 10th. Keep the last 12 months of LES records — you'll reference them for taxes and financial planning.

Section-by-section breakdown

The header information

At the top of your LES, you'll see:

• Name and SSN (last 4)
• Pay Date: the date this pay was credited to your account
• Pd End: the end of the pay period (1st–15th or 16th–EOM)
• Branch of Service: your branch code
• Pay Grade: your current rank/grade (e.g., E-5, O-3, W-2)
• Mos: Basic Pay, Date: this is your Pay Entry Base Date (PEBD) — more on this below
• ETS: your estimated separation date

Verify your pay grade is correct on every LES. Grade changes after a promotion or reduction take time to process and errors are more common than most people expect.

Entitlements (left column)

The left column shows every positive amount — everything the military is paying you. Common line items:

BASEPAY: Your monthly basic pay for the pay period shown. One LES covers half a month, so this will be approximately half your monthly rate. Verify this against the official 2026 pay table for your grade and years of service.

BAH: Basic Allowance for Housing. The rate shown should match your pay grade and dependency status at your duty station. If you recently PCS'd and the BAH hasn't updated, contact your finance office immediately — BAH rate corrections take time to backfill but are generally retroactive to your report date.

BAS: Basic Allowance for Subsistence. Enlisted: $476.95/month ($238.48/half-month). Officers: $328.48/month ($164.24/half-month). This should be constant unless your status changed.

SPECIAL PAY types: Flight pay, hazardous duty pay, language pay, special duty assignment pay, and similar special pays appear as separate line items when applicable. These are based on your qualifying duty and assignment. If you believe you're entitled to a special pay that isn't showing, verify with your unit S1 or finance office.

CZ TAX EXCL: During combat zone deployment, this line may appear showing income excluded from federal tax under the Combat Zone Tax Exclusion. This is not additional income — it's a notation that a portion of your entitlements is being excluded from taxable income.

FSA: Family Separation Allowance ($300/month in 2026) when you are separated from your dependents for more than 30 days due to military orders. This should appear automatically during deployments and unaccompanied tours if your dependents are elsewhere.

DPB: Dependent rate for BAH (sometimes shown as a separate line). If you recently added a dependent (marriage, birth), verify that your dependency status updated and your BAH reflects the with-dependents rate.

Deductions (middle column)

The middle column shows every amount taken from your pay. These are not optional unless noted.

FITW (Federal Income Tax Withholding): Federal income tax withheld based on your W-4 filing status, dependents, and withholding elections on file. For most service members, FITW is one of the largest deductions. During combat zone months, FITW drops to zero or near-zero for enlisted members under CZTE.

FICA-SOC (Social Security): 6.2% of taxable pay up to the Social Security wage base ($176,100 in 2026). This continues regardless of deployment status.

FICA-MED (Medicare): 1.45% of all taxable pay. Also continues in combat zones.

SITW (State Income Tax Withholding): State income tax withheld based on your state of legal residence. Nine states have no income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. If you maintain legal residency in a no-tax state, this line should be zero or absent. If you're being taxed by a state you don't consider your home state, talk to your legal assistance office — military members have significant flexibility in domicile designation.

SGLI: Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance premium. The current rate is $0.05 per $1,000 of coverage per month (effective July 2025), plus $1.00/month flat for TSGLI. For the maximum $500,000 coverage: $25.00 basic + $1.00 TSGLI = $26.00/month ($13.00/half-month). Verify your coverage level matches what you elected. If you're enrolled in less than $500,000 and there's no deliberate reason for it, you may want to increase to maximum — the premium difference is minimal.

TSP: Your Thrift Savings Plan contribution for this pay period. The most important number to verify: are you contributing enough to capture the full BRS government match? Under BRS, contributing 5% of basic pay captures the full 4% match (plus the automatic 1%). If your TSP deduction is less than 5% of your base pay, you're leaving free money behind. Log in to myPay or the TSP website to adjust your contribution percentage.

If you're on BRS and your TSP line is blank or zero, verify that you've enrolled — the 1% automatic government contribution starts after 60 days of service, but your own contributions don't happen automatically.

AFRH (Armed Forces Retirement Home): $0.50/month mandatory contribution.

Other deductions: Savings bonds, charity contributions (Combined Federal Campaign), and similar items may appear if you've set them up. Review these periodically — automatic deductions are easy to forget about.

Allotments (right column)

Allotments are voluntary recurring payments you've authorized from your pay — essentially direct withdrawals set up through myPay. Common uses: additional savings to a bank or credit union, debt payments, charity donations.

Allotments are easy to set up and easy to forget. Review your allotment list at least annually and cancel anything you no longer need. Allotments to closed bank accounts or for products you no longer use will continue until you cancel them.

Summary section

The summary section at the bottom reconciles all activity:

• Total Entitlements: Sum of everything in the left column
• Total Deductions: Sum of everything in the middle column
• Total Allotments: Sum of everything in the right column
• Net Pay: What actually deposits into your bank account (Total Entitlements − Total Deductions − Total Allotments)

If net pay surprises you in either direction, work backward through the three columns to find the discrepancy.

Leave section

The leave section shows your leave balance in days:

• Leave Brought Forward: Balance at the start of the fiscal year (October 1)
• Earned This Period: 2.5 days per month of active service (30 days/year)
• Used This Period: Days of leave taken this period
• Current Balance: Days currently available to use
• ETS Balance: Projected balance at your separation date (if applicable)
• Use/Lose: Days at risk of forfeiture at the fiscal year end (September 30)

The use-or-lose threshold: You can carry a maximum of 60 days of leave into the new fiscal year (October 1). Any balance above 60 days forfeits unless you're in a deployed or contingency status. If your leave balance is approaching 60 days in late summer, take leave or you will lose it.

Leave has a real dollar value. A day of leave is worth 1/30th of your monthly basic pay. For an E-7 at 14 years ($5,835.00/month), a single day of leave is worth $194.50. Forfeiting 10 days is forfeiting $1,945.

YTD (Year-to-Date) section

The YTD section accumulates running totals for the calendar year:

• YTD Wages: Your total taxable wages for the year to date. This feeds into your W-2 at year-end.
• YTD FWT: Year-to-date federal tax withheld. Compare to your expected annual tax liability. If you're significantly under-withheld, you may owe a tax payment; if significantly over-withheld, you're giving the government an interest-free loan.
• YTD FICA: Social Security and Medicare taxes paid year-to-date.
• YTD TSP: Your cumulative TSP contributions for the year. Track this against the annual limits: $24,500 elective deferral for most service members; $72,000 total additions limit during months with CZTE-excluded combat pay.

Pay Entry Base Date (PEBD)

This is the most financially significant field most service members never think about.

Your Pay Entry Base Date is the date used to calculate your years of service for pay purposes. It determines which column on the pay chart you fall into — and those columns translate to real dollar differences. For example, E-5 at YOS < 6 earns $3,946.80/month; E-5 at YOS ≥ 6 earns $4,110.00/month. The difference between a correct and incorrect PEBD can be $150+ per month in base pay.

PEBD is calculated from your date of entry into active service, adjusted for any prior service credit, breaks in service, or other factors. If you have prior service from a different branch, prior enlisted service before commissioning, or military academy time, your PEBD may differ from your initial enlistment or commissioning date.

How to verify: Look up your PEBD on your LES. Calculate how many full years of service it reflects. Then check the pay table for your grade at that YOS bracket — the pay should match your BASEPAY line within a few dollars (accounting for the half-month prorations on the LES). For example, E-5 at YOS ≥ 6 earns $4,110.00/month; at YOS 4–5 earns $3,946.80/month.

If your base pay is lower than expected, ask your unit's S1 or finance office to review your PEBD. Errors in PEBD sometimes result in months of underpayment that must be corrected through retroactive adjustments.

What to check every pay period

You don't need to analyze every field every time. Focus on:

1. Base pay: Does it match your grade and YOS? Cross-reference with the pay chart.
2. BAH: Is it showing the right rate (with or without dependents) for your duty station?
3. TSP: Are you contributing what you intended? Are you capturing the full BRS match?
4. Net pay: Does the deposit amount match what you expected?
5. Leave balance: Are you approaching use-or-lose territory?
6. SGLI: Is your coverage level correct?
7. State tax: Are you being withheld for the right (or no) state?

This review takes 3 minutes. The errors it catches can be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Combat zone LES differences

When you're deployed to a CZTE-qualifying area, your LES looks different:

• FITW drops to zero or near-zero for enlisted members (full exclusion) and to a reduced amount for officers (partial exclusion capped at E-9 rate plus IDP)
• A CZ TAX EXCL line appears showing the dollar amount excluded from federal tax
• YTD wages exclude the CZTE-excluded amounts from taxable wage calculations
• TSP contributions from excluded pay show as normal on your LES even though they're being made with tax-free dollars (Roth TSP on CZTE-excluded pay = triple tax-free)

If your LES during deployment still shows significant FITW, verify your location has been certified as a combat zone with your finance office. The CZTE doesn't apply automatically — your unit must designate the location and process the tax exclusion through the finance system.

The bottom line

Your LES is a 12-section financial document that most service members read for exactly one number: net pay. The remaining 11 sections contain information that directly affects your wealth — your leave balance, your tax withholding, your TSP contributions, your SGLI coverage, and the accuracy of your pay grade and PEBD.

The mistakes that cost the most are the ones that persist unnoticed for months or years. A wrong dependency status, an expired allotment, a TSP contribution that never got entered correctly — none of these fix themselves. You find them by reading your LES.

Open myPay this week and spend five minutes on your most recent LES. You may find everything is correct. You may find something that's been quietly costing you money for the past six months.