Here’s how the Army says it will work:
Senior warrant officers hoping to receive a bonus for extending their active duty service commitment will submit confidential “bids,” which represent the minimum monthly paycheck bump each soldier “would be satisfied receiving” to sign a new six -year contract.
Once all eligible warrant officers submit their bids, Army officials will determine both the amount of the bonus payment and who will receive it by calculating the auction’s “market-clearing” rate, a concept used widely in economics and finance. In that process, the “winning” bid is the bonus amount that would spread all of the program’s funding for the year among the most soldiers who agreed to accept a payment that size or smaller with their bids (all soldiers who win in the auction will receive the winning bonus, even if their bid was lower).
Those who bid too high get nothing.