Ak is correct. I don't know what the ratio is but I think it would be better than 50% come back with their only wealth measured in depreciating items like overpriced cars or even less a computer hard drive full of lewd party pics. Especially your first 6 month contract or year you realise just how quickly all this money can dissappear into nothing. Even RnR, for some reason, doing nothing greatly different than before so you think, goes from spending a grand or two back in your old life to suddenly you are like" where did that last 3 months pay go???"
I got smart after the first 6 months and since then its all in various bank accounts.
A lot of older guys(and smarter) are here just to pay off the final mortgage and they make sure it all goes onto that. They have their time here estimated to whatever is needed to make the final payment.
Quite a few guys also buy cheap houses and land in places like Thailand, the former yugoslav republic countries and turkey to have as a holiday home and also avoid tax..
Salary wise as mentioned there are 7-10 regular jobs for every security operator, which is probably similar ratio of noncombatants to frontline guys in any army for example.Most of the workforce aka the really menial stuff is made up by TCN's( 3rd worlders basically-africans, indians, phillipinos no offence to them or anyone) and westerners hold supervisory/foreman jobs and up from there. TCN wages are usually from 500-2000 /month.
Westerners money is a lot more but probably not as good as people think. The glory days of profiteering in iraq for $1000 a day have almost dissappearesd.
Example construction foreman, warehouse guy on a team here
6000-10000 month(the difference between say a cheapo Euro company and a top firm).
Manager, site manager,projects/ ops manager.
8000-15,000 with 20,000 month max( the latter is pretty rare those these days. Most mid managers here are on 10-12 grand a month)
Country/regional level manager- 15+ and maybe also profit sharing which then makes him a millionaire of course.
Base paramedic(never leave major base) about 7-9 grand per month.
Firefighter about the same.
Consultant Engineer/expert/scientist- regular hostile road trips- anywhere from 10-18 grand a month
Gym attendant at one of the local base gyms- 6-7 grand month
Chick who makes the base ID cards. 5-7 grand a month.
Guy at base in the middle of nowhere organising a team of TCN's to pump gas into war machines- 8-12 grand a month.
Guy serving pies in the UK canteens. 2-3 grand a month(no idea why they even come over for that wage)
And of course "Security operators"-well the last couple years it tapered off and you are happy to get 10-15 grand a month with a good company. I have seen some guys still on 20 grand but that's pretty rare now. Or maybe I am not just in that category
A lot of groups are outsourcing the PSD teams and the toughest jobs to expendable TCN's. Also KArzai has put a foriegn worker cap on security numbers, so more companies are forced to hire local afghan guards(for around $300/month)Good news is medics on teams still command a premium. At least as far as I am aware. Those of us who came earlier are still on our original contracts....for now.