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-2 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,451 / month
San Francisco$5,451
Atlantic City$3,285
Fort G. G. Meade$3,273
Everett$3,240
Annapolis$3,225
Sitka$3,225
County Cost Group 880$3,201
Quantico$3,171
Edwards AFB$3,153
Beale AFB$3,129
Ann Arbor$3,075
Cape May$3,069
New London$3,069
Denver$3,060
Fort Detrick$3,060
Tampa$3,039
County Cost Group 870$2,994
Philadelphia$2,976
Sacramento$2,976
Orlando$2,958
Outer Banks$2,943
Stockton$2,931
Youngstown$1,332
Cape May is #68 of 338. The spread between the
dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $4,119 a month —
$49,428 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-2
is worth $2,382 a month — about 20 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.