Pick a station below to see what the move is worth a year, before tax.
Orders rarely arrive as one option — add several and rank them.
Comparison uses with-dependents rates. Differences are annual and untaxed.
Rate protection is not applied — a PCS resets you to the new location's current-year rate.
W-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,472 / month
San Francisco$5,472
Ballston Spa$2,880
Port Angeles$2,880
Hampden County$2,874
Allentown$2,862
County Cost Group 860$2,847
Fresno$2,847
Fort Pierce$2,844
Abilene$2,841
Oxford$2,835
Beaufort$2,832
Austin$2,826
Bridgeport$2,826
Dallas$2,826
Traverse City$2,823
Astoria$2,817
Minneapolis$2,796
Great Lakes Navtracen$2,778
Portland$2,772
Whidbey Island$2,766
County Cost Group 850$2,763
Aberdeen Proving Grounds$2,760
Youngstown$1,350
Austin is #97 of 338. The spread between the
dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $4,122 a month —
$49,464 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Austin0 – $4,161 / month
E-1$2,046
E-2$2,046
E-3$2,046
E-4$2,046
E-5$2,241
E-6$2,802
E-7$3,039
E-8$3,294
E-9$3,558
W-1$2,826
W-2$3,141
W-3$3,456
W-4$3,597
W-5$3,771
O-1E$3,087
O-2E$3,408
O-3E$3,624
O-1$2,313
O-2$2,796
O-3$3,447
O-4$3,825
O-5$4,095
O-6$4,131
O-7$4,161
The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.
Moving from Austin to San Francisco at W-1
is worth $2,646 a month — about 8 promotions at this grade.
Where you are stationed outweighs rank, by a lot.
What the rate table does not tell you
01
“With dependents” is a dependency
status, not a marital status. A single member paying child support can be authorized
BAH-Diff; a married dual-military couple with no children is not automatically the
with-dependents rate for both. If your situation is unusual, your finance office decides —
not this table.
02
O-8, O-9 and O-10 draw the same BAH as
O-7. The table stops there for a reason, not because it is missing rows.
03
This is CONUS BAH only. Overseas is OHA,
which works differently — it reimburses actual rent up to a cap, with separate utility and
move-in allowances. Alaska and Hawaii are BAH; Germany, Japan and Korea are OHA.