E-8 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,196 / month
San Francisco$5,196
County Cost Group 850$2,481
Allentown$2,472
Austin$2,472
Savannah$2,466
Birmingham$2,463
Norfolk$2,463
Portland$2,460
Atlanta$2,457
Corvallis$2,457
Youngstown$1,248
Birmingham is #106 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,948 a month —
$47,376 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Birmingham0 – $2,556 / month
E-1$1,668
E-2$1,668
E-3$1,668
E-4$1,668
E-5$1,878
E-6$2,031
E-7$2,232
E-8$2,463
E-9$2,478
W-1$2,160
W-2$2,460
W-3$2,484
W-4$2,520
W-5$2,532
O-1E$2,436
O-2E$2,472
O-3E$2,517
O-1$2,007
O-2$2,370
O-3$2,490
O-4$2,523
O-5$2,535
O-6$2,538
O-7$2,556
Promoting to E-9 here adds $15 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 Birmingham to San Francisco at E-8 is worth $2,733 a month — about 182 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $15 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 4% 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. $2,463 a month of BAH takes more than $2,463 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.