W-3 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,301 / month
San Francisco$5,301
Reno$2,544
Savannah$2,538
Elizabeth City$2,535
Dahlgren$2,529
Charleston$2,508
Richmond$2,502
County Cost Group 840$2,499
Norfolk$2,496
Birmingham$2,484
Youngstown$1,341
Charleston is #115 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,960 a month —
$47,520 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Charleston0 – $2,742 / month
E-1$1,755
E-2$1,755
E-3$1,755
E-4$1,755
E-5$1,941
E-6$2,064
E-7$2,223
E-8$2,439
E-9$2,496
W-1$2,172
W-2$2,436
W-3$2,508
W-4$2,619
W-5$2,661
O-1E$2,382
O-2E$2,484
O-3E$2,607
O-1$2,049
O-2$2,334
O-3$2,529
O-4$2,646
O-5$2,664
O-6$2,697
O-7$2,742
Promoting to W-4 here adds $111 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-3 is worth $2,793 a month — about 25 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $111 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 9% 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. $2,508 a month of BAH takes more than $2,508 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.