Captain America Is Due A Small Fortune In Back Pay By The U.S. Government

Anyone who says Captain America doesn’t fight hard for his country and — when facing enemies from beyond the stars — the world doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Between two Captain America films, two Avengers movies and the upcoming Captain America: Civil War, the ultimate anti-bully has more than paid his dues while brandishing his vibranium shield. Hence why, according to one intrepid Reddit user, Steve Rogers is owed a sh*tload of money by the federal government. Time to pay up, President Tr… Obama!

MTV first caught wind of Reddit user anon33249038’s popular post in /r/FanTheories, which argues that the good captain was never technically off duty since the mid 1940s. Sure, the poor schmuck was frozen in the Red Skull’s advanced bomber after crashing it into the ice, but that doesn’t excuse the U.S. Army from screwing up the paperwork and changing Rogers’ duty register. So what’s the damage, precisely?

The Redditor calculates that “the O-3 pay grade in 1945 for someone with two years or less experience was $313.50 a quarter,” and combined with “an extra $100 per quarter” for special training and “a quarterly living allowance without a dependent of $82.50,” Rogers should have banked $5,952 during his first three years of service. After all, The First Avenger began with the Captain’s creation in 1942 and ended with his self-sacrifice in 1945.

But wait, there’s more! For a “biannual increase of pay for service with a pay cap at 22 years with no increase of specialized pay or living allowance,” Captain America would have made $81,684 in addition to his first three years on the job. That means $87,636 for 25 years of service, though this number puts Rogers’ pay count up to the year 1967 — a sizable 44 years shy of his 2011 thawing for The Avengers. So anon33249038 crunched the numbers for the full 66-year difference, as well inflation adjustments, and produced a final number of $3,154,619.52.

So yes, the U.S. government owes Captain America nearly $3.2 million in back pay. That’s the least they could do for a man who, as soon as they woke him up, was thrown back into active duty. I mean, for fu…

(Reddit via MTV)

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