W-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,472 / month
San Francisco$5,472
St. Louis$2,673
Knoxville$2,670
Savannah$2,670
Richmond$2,646
Charleston$2,634
Pittsburgh$2,625
Detroit$2,601
County Cost Group 830$2,598
Asheville$2,589
Youngstown$1,350
Charleston is #123 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 Charleston0 – $3,081 / month
E-1$2,220
E-2$2,220
E-3$2,220
E-4$2,220
E-5$2,385
E-6$2,616
E-7$2,652
E-8$2,694
E-9$2,769
W-1$2,634
W-2$2,667
W-3$2,724
W-4$2,790
W-5$2,880
O-1E$2,655
O-2E$2,712
O-3E$2,802
O-1$2,421
O-2$2,613
O-3$2,721
O-4$2,904
O-5$3,039
O-6$3,060
O-7$3,081
Promoting to W-2 here adds $33 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 Charleston to San Francisco at W-1 is worth $2,838 a month — about 86 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $33 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 21% 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. $2,634 a month of BAH takes more than $2,634 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.