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.
O-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,172 / month
San Francisco$5,172
New York City$5,073
Boston$4,803
Northern New Jersey$4,791
Santa Clara County$4,704
Westchester County$4,587
Long Island$4,473
Nantucket$4,440
Maui County$4,386
Hanscom AFB$4,230
Martha's Vineyard$4,062
San Diego$4,032
Camp Pendleton$4,023
Florida Keys$3,987
Cape Cod-Plymouth$3,942
Los Angeles$3,927
Kauai County$3,861
Oakland$3,807
Staten Island$3,798
Honolulu County$3,702
Miami$3,687
Youngstown$1,218
Boston is #3 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 Boston0 – $6,594 / month
E-1$4,344
E-2$4,344
E-3$4,344
E-4$4,344
E-5$4,791
E-6$4,812
E-7$4,938
E-8$5,079
E-9$5,379
W-1$4,827
W-2$4,995
W-3$5,169
W-4$5,457
W-5$5,805
O-1E$4,962
O-2E$5,142
O-3E$5,511
O-1$4,803
O-2$4,809
O-3$5,163
O-4$5,928
O-5$6,483
O-6$6,540
O-7$6,594
The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.
Moving from Boston to San Francisco at O-1
is worth $369 a month — about 62 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.