W-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,472 / month
San Francisco$5,472
Fort Riley$1,803
Huntington$1,797
County Cost Group 680$1,791
Charleston$1,785
China Lake$1,785
County Cost Group 670$1,782
Montgomery$1,773
County Cost Group 660$1,770
Saginaw$1,767
Youngstown$1,350
China Lake is #297 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 China Lake0 – $2,694 / month
E-1$1,524
E-2$1,524
E-3$1,524
E-4$1,524
E-5$1,563
E-6$1,767
E-7$1,905
E-8$2,058
E-9$2,238
W-1$1,785
W-2$1,968
W-3$2,157
W-4$2,268
W-5$2,403
O-1E$1,932
O-2E$2,130
O-3E$2,289
O-1$1,596
O-2$1,764
O-3$2,154
O-4$2,445
O-5$2,658
O-6$2,676
O-7$2,694
Promoting to W-2 here adds $183 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 China Lake to San Francisco at W-1 is worth $3,687 a month — about 20 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $183 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 17% 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. $1,785 a month of BAH takes more than $1,785 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.