W-1 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,085 / month
New York City$5,085
Fairbanks$1,965
Myrtle Beach$1,962
Charlotte$1,956
Eastern Shore$1,956
Cincinnati$1,953
Grand Haven$1,953
Detroit$1,950
Memphis$1,944
Spokane$1,932
Youngstown$1,128
Cincinnati is #154 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,957 a month —
$47,484 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Cincinnati0 – $2,625 / month
E-1$1,524
E-2$1,524
E-3$1,524
E-4$1,524
E-5$1,713
E-6$1,893
E-7$2,040
E-8$2,337
E-9$2,400
W-1$1,953
W-2$2,334
W-3$2,412
W-4$2,523
W-5$2,559
O-1E$2,280
O-2E$2,385
O-3E$2,517
O-1$1,776
O-2$2,202
O-3$2,433
O-4$2,544
O-5$2,562
O-6$2,583
O-7$2,625
Promoting to W-2 here adds $381 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 Cincinnati to New York City at W-1 is worth $3,132 a month — about 8 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $381 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 30% 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. $1,953 a month of BAH takes more than $1,953 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.