W-1 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,085 / month
New York City$5,085
Paducah$1,422
County Cost Group 730$1,419
Holloman AFB$1,416
Lafayette$1,413
Brownsville$1,410
Springfield$1,410
Fort Rucker$1,407
Lubbock$1,407
Sparta$1,401
Youngstown$1,128
Brownsville is #286 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,957 a month —
$47,484 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Brownsville0 – $2,187 / month
E-1$1,125
E-2$1,125
E-3$1,125
E-4$1,125
E-5$1,248
E-6$1,392
E-7$1,479
E-8$1,578
E-9$1,695
W-1$1,410
W-2$1,575
W-3$1,698
W-4$1,881
W-5$1,998
O-1E$1,500
O-2E$1,656
O-3E$1,851
O-1$1,323
O-2$1,482
O-3$1,728
O-4$1,974
O-5$2,040
O-6$2,151
O-7$2,187
Promoting to W-2 here adds $165 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 Brownsville to New York City at W-1 is worth $3,675 a month — about 22 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $165 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 33% 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. $1,410 a month of BAH takes more than $1,410 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.