Where your LES comes from
myPay (DFAS). Log into myPay at mypay.dfas.mil. Sailors get the standard DFAS LES monthly.
Navy-specific gotchas
- Career Sea Pay grows with cumulative sea time, so the counter matters as much as the current tour. If a previous sea tour was recorded short, every future month pays low. Compare your sea pay rate against your actual cumulative years at sea.
- Sea duty transitions are the Navy's classic start/stop window: reporting aboard should start sea pay that month, detaching should stop it. Both directions generate errors.
- Deployed to a combat zone? Verify the Combat Zone Tax Exclusion applied: your taxable wages on the LES should drop for each qualifying month. One day in the zone qualifies the whole month.
The five lines to check every month
- SEA PAY: Your cumulative sea counter is the thing to protect.
- BASE PAY: Basic Pay errors almost always happen at a promotion or when your Pay Entry Base Date is recorded wrong.
- CZTE: Even one day in the zone in a month qualifies the whole month.
- CR BAL: This is the number to plan vacations and terminal leave around.
- REMARKS: Read the remarks every single month.