W-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,472 / month
San Francisco$5,472
Twenty Nine Palms MCB$2,571
Patuxent River$2,562
Helena$2,556
Fort Collins$2,550
Birmingham$2,547
Cincinnati$2,544
Eglin AFB$2,544
Houston$2,535
Rochester$2,535
Youngstown$1,350
Birmingham is #137 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 Birmingham0 – $2,865 / month
E-1$2,223
E-2$2,223
E-3$2,223
E-4$2,223
E-5$2,439
E-6$2,532
E-7$2,550
E-8$2,559
E-9$2,583
W-1$2,547
W-2$2,556
W-3$2,568
W-4$2,598
W-5$2,682
O-1E$2,553
O-2E$2,562
O-3E$2,613
O-1$2,457
O-2$2,529
O-3$2,565
O-4$2,703
O-5$2,826
O-6$2,847
O-7$2,865
Promoting to W-2 here adds $9 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 W-1 is worth $2,925 a month — about 325 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $9 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 18% 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. $2,547 a month of BAH takes more than $2,547 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.