E-6 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,454 / month
San Francisco$5,454
Washington$3,759
Essex CO$3,744
Burlington$3,741
New Haven$3,723
Chicago$3,702
Portsmouth$3,690
Vandenberg SFB$3,642
West Palm Beach$3,606
Portland$3,576
Youngstown$1,335
Chicago is #36 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 Chicago0 – $4,152 / month
E-1$3,174
E-2$3,174
E-3$3,174
E-4$3,174
E-5$3,438
E-6$3,702
E-7$3,723
E-8$3,732
E-9$3,771
W-1$3,720
W-2$3,729
W-3$3,741
W-4$3,795
W-5$3,900
O-1E$3,726
O-2E$3,735
O-3E$3,810
O-1$3,477
O-2$3,699
O-3$3,738
O-4$3,927
O-5$4,086
O-6$4,122
O-7$4,152
Promoting to E-7 here adds $21 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 Chicago to San Francisco at E-6 is worth $1,752 a month — about 83 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $21 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 26% 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. $3,702 a month of BAH takes more than $3,702 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.