“Key House lawmakers on Tuesday renewed their promise to dramatically boost junior enlisted pay in the near future but warned that other budget limits may complicate hopes for a quick fix,” Military Times reported.

“Right now, it’s not until troops are promoted basically two or three times and serve at least four years that they get the same salary as a fast-food worker making $15 an hour,” Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) told a committee Tuesday. “We’ve got to raise that.”

DOD is conducting a review of military pay, but Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee’s special panel on quality of life, said he wouldn’t wait for that review to be finished next year and will bring it up during the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act debate.

“We’ve been doing across-the-board pay raises, which over time has pushed the junior enlisted pay and senior officers’ salaries further apart,” he said. “It’s past time we fix that.”

Air Force photo of Garcia by Tech. Sgt. Robert Cloys