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
Newport$2,925
Sacramento$2,922
JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst$2,904
County Cost Group 880$2,898
JB Elmendorf-Richardson$2,886
Ketchikan$2,880
Kodiak Island$2,877
Denver$2,874
Boulder$2,829
Everett$2,814
Cape May$2,799
Tampa$2,757
Atlantic City$2,736
Fort Detrick$2,733
Philadelphia$2,733
Fort Myers Beach$2,730
Edwards AFB$2,724
Fort Pierce$2,715
County Cost Group 870$2,700
Orlando$2,700
Madison$2,691
Youngstown$1,218
Cape May is #70 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 Cape May0 – $4,032 / month
E-1$2,523
E-2$2,523
E-3$2,523
E-4$2,523
E-5$2,754
E-6$3,072
E-7$3,114
E-8$3,159
E-9$3,312
W-1$3,093
W-2$3,132
W-3$3,189
W-4$3,360
W-5$3,570
O-1E$3,117
O-2E$3,177
O-3E$3,390
O-1$2,799
O-2$3,069
O-3$3,186
O-4$3,639
O-5$3,969
O-6$4,002
O-7$4,032
The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.
Moving from Cape May to San Francisco at O-1
is worth $2,373 a month — about 9 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.