W-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,472 / month
San Francisco$5,472
Nantucket$5,148
New York City$5,100
Northern New Jersey$5,070
Santa Clara County$4,998
Boston$4,827
Maui County$4,797
Long Island$4,791
Martha's Vineyard$4,617
Hanscom AFB$4,497
Youngstown$1,350
Boston is #7 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 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
Promoting to W-2 here adds $168 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 Boston to San Francisco at W-1 is worth $645 a month — about 4 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $168 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 15% 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. $4,827 a month of BAH takes more than $4,827 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.