O-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,172 / month
San Francisco$5,172
Tulsa$1,683
Wright-Patterson AFB$1,683
Mountain Home AFB$1,680
Oklahoma City$1,677
Bismarck$1,674
Topeka$1,662
Whiteman AFB$1,656
Malmstrom SFB$1,641
Camp Lejeune$1,635
Youngstown$1,218
Bismarck is #255 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,954 a month —
$47,448 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Bismarck0 – $2,409 / month
E-1$1,500
E-2$1,500
E-3$1,500
E-4$1,500
E-5$1,596
E-6$2,202
E-7$2,262
E-8$2,328
E-9$2,376
W-1$2,223
W-2$2,289
W-3$2,373
W-4$2,379
W-5$2,385
O-1E$2,271
O-2E$2,358
O-3E$2,382
O-1$1,674
O-2$2,196
O-3$2,370
O-4$2,388
O-5$2,391
O-6$2,397
O-7$2,409
Promoting to O-2 here adds $522 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 Bismarck to San Francisco at O-1 is worth $3,498 a month — about 7 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $522 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 20% 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. $1,674 a month of BAH takes more than $1,674 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.