What is the average salary for a National Guard soldier in 2025?

1. Why the numbers scatter: rank, duty status and what “salary” includes

The Army and Air National Guard use military pay tables keyed to rank and years of service, and part‑time Guard members are paid for drill weekends and annual training rather than a single salaried wage, so the authoritative source is the DoD/Army pay charts rather than any aggregator claiming a single average ^{[3] [4]}; civilian sites often mix enlisted, officer and full‑time technicians or include bonuses, housing and allowances, which inflates their “average” compared with the pay a drill‑status soldier actually receives ^{[5] [6]}.

2. What major aggregators report for 2025 and why they disagree

ZipRecruiter reported an average annual pay for a National Guard of about $35,072 in late 2025, a figure that likely reflects civilianized survey data and part‑time drill pay converted to an annualized number ^[1]; Comparably showed an average nearer $69,140 for Army National Guard total compensation, a higher result that appears to include broader compensation measures and location‑weighted samples ^[2]; PayScale and Glassdoor produce still different pictures — PayScale’s Army National Guard average is listed around $88,379 while Glassdoor’s National Guard figure is an outlier at roughly $185,656, both of which reflect small sample sizes, mixed job categories and inclusion of officer/technician/full‑time roles rather than a homogeneous enlisted drill soldier population ^{[7] [5]}.

3. Ground truth: what the official pay tables say and the practical implication

Official Army pay charts show basic pay is set by rank and years of service and that Reserve/Guard pay is calculated for days served (weekend drills, annual training)—the government lays out base pay separately from allowances and bonuses and therefore does not produce a single “average salary” for all Guard members in public pages ^[3]; practically, that means any civilian average must be interpreted: some aggregators reflect many part‑time enlisted members and return lower annualized figures (ZipRecruiter), while others weight toward full‑time technicians, officers or include allowances and benefits and return much higher averages ^{[1] [2] [5]}.

4. How to interpret a headline “average” and which figure is most useful

For someone seeking a realistic, conservative benchmark for a typical part‑time enlisted Guard member in 2025, the lower clustered civilian estimates (ZipRecruiter’s ~$35k) are likely closer to the cash‑pay reality for many drill‑status soldiers, while higher aggregator numbers often reflect different populations (officers, full‑time technicians) or include non‑cash compensation ^{[1] [2] [5]}; the only precise way to calculate an individual’s expected 2025 Guard pay is to consult the official pay charts by rank/years and tally drill days, annual training days and any applicable allowances or bonuses ^[3].

5. Reporting caveats, incentives and the final take

Aggregators have differing incentives—some prioritize job‑seeker marketing or rely on limited self‑reported samples, which produces variance and occasional outliers like Glassdoor’s very high averages; the government pay tables provide the canonical method but not a single aggregate number, so readers should treat any cited “average” as an estimate generated by methodology rather than a definitive government figure ^{[5] [3]}; synthesizing the available sources, the plausible range for reported 2025 annual pay for National Guard personnel runs broadly from roughly $35,000 (typical civilianized averages for part‑time roles) up toward $70,000+ where reports include full‑time positions, officers and added allowances ^{[1] [2] [7]}.