O-3 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,331 / month
San Francisco$5,331
Orlando$2,847
Fort Myers Beach$2,835
Outer Banks$2,820
Madison$2,799
Baltimore$2,793
Stockton$2,793
JB Lewis-McChord$2,784
Ballston Spa$2,775
Fort Pierce$2,772
Youngstown$1,344
Baltimore is #81 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,987 a month —
$47,844 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Baltimore0 – $3,192 / month
E-1$1,857
E-2$1,857
E-3$1,857
E-4$1,857
E-5$2,079
E-6$2,226
E-7$2,415
E-8$2,673
E-9$2,754
W-1$2,349
W-2$2,670
W-3$2,766
W-4$2,919
W-5$3,015
O-1E$2,607
O-2E$2,736
O-3E$2,895
O-1$2,205
O-2$2,547
O-3$2,793
O-4$2,994
O-5$3,045
O-6$3,138
O-7$3,192
Promoting to O-4 here adds $201 a
month. The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.
01
Where you are stationed outweighs what you are paid. Moving from Baltimore to San Francisco at O-3 is worth $2,538 a month — about 13 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $201 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 13% here. That is a status your finance office determines, not a box you tick — and it is the single largest lever on this page that is not a change of address.
03
None of it is taxed. $2,793 a month of BAH takes more than $2,793 of basic pay to match, which is why comparing a civilian salary against military base pay alone understates the gap.
Ad slot — in-content, after the answerPlaced below the number, never above it. VA-loan and PCS-move advertisers bid here.
Things the rate table doesn't 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.