Near the end of World War II in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America crashed Red Skull’s plane full of weapons of mass destruction into the Arctic. Understandably, he was presumed dead, but decades later, he was found and thawed. Steve Rogers has been continuing his fight against injustice since then, but a Redditor pointed out that because he never really died, he’s technically entitled to a little over $3 million in back pay. Almost a week after the theory was put out, the U.S. Army has responded to these claims (no, seriously) and actually revealed that if this exact scenario was replicated in real life, the Star Spangled would be entitled to more money than that.
In their official statement (via Tribunist), the U.S. Army clarified some mistakes that the Reditor got wrong regarding military pay scales, like how the O-3 pay grade in 1945 was actually calculated as a monthly pay rate rather than a quarterly one. They also noted that the individual didn’t take into account any promotions that Steve Rogers might have earned while he was listed as "missing." (Although in that’s the case, why has he still been going by ‘Captain’ in recent years?) The U.S. Army didn’t provide a new ballpark number of what Steve might be entitled to, but because of these unaddressed factors, the amount would clearly be more, whether that’s by thousands or even millions.
Just like in the comics, Captain America was considered dead following his last mission in World War II. In the MCU, he was only discovered frozen in the Arctic thanks to a S.H.I.E.L.D. team exploring the crash site. Since then, he’s served as both a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and one of the main Avengers, and while the latter is (or rather was) a private organization, the former is definitely a government organization, so he was also entitled to a paycheck from them. That might have been covered by Nick Fury giving Steve housing and a living allowance, but we can’t forget about all that Army back pay that’s been collecting.
Of course, because of Captain America: Civil War (no spoilers here), Steve Rogers has gone rogue in protest of the Sokovia Accords and superheroes being regulated by the world’s governments. So any pay/benefits Steve was entitled to has probably been frozen or simply been tucked away quiet by a government employee to be ignored because he’s now considered a criminal. For Steve, that isn’t a problem, since he’s still living with a clean conscience by taking these actions in the latest MCU movie.
You can see Captain America, as well as a lot of other Marvel heroes, in action now during Captain America: Civil War, and Chris Evans will reprise Steve Rogers in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War movies.
