Following up on this item posted here yesterday, Halliburton announced that it has surpassed the $10 billion mark (Reuters) in government checks from their no-bid Iraq contracts. Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root accounts for more than $8 billion of that total.
While some soldiers in Iraq have trouble simply being paid, an average Halliburton/KBR employee will earn twice the wage of a rank and file soldier. $70,000 - $100,000 a year to be exact. Find a high school teacher or a guardsman or a military police officer in Falluja who takes home that kind of dough.
It gets better for the KBR crews. According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, if a KBR employee sticks around longer than 330 days, $80,000 of their salary is TAX FREE. That stands repeating. If they stick around longer than 330 days, nearly their entire salary is TAX FREE.
Military servicemen who perform similar duties will earn, on average, only half of the average KBR salary. Around $40,000 per year.
That is... if they can actually collect their checks.