Pick a station below to see what the move is worth a year, before tax.
Orders rarely arrive as one option — add several and rank them.
Comparison uses with-dependents rates. Differences are annual and untaxed.
Rate protection is not applied — a PCS resets you to the new location's current-year rate.
E-5 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,127 / month
San Francisco$5,127
Roanoke$1,911
Rock Island$1,908
Bloomington$1,905
Davis-Monthan AFB$1,905
New Orleans$1,905
Bangor$1,893
County Cost Group 790$1,890
Fort Gordon$1,890
Helena$1,887
Mobile$1,887
Columbia$1,878
Baton Rouge$1,875
Columbus$1,875
Indianapolis$1,875
Lexington$1,875
Abilene$1,872
San Antonio (JBSA)$1,869
Pensacola$1,863
Morehead$1,851
Little Rock$1,848
Shreveport$1,845
Anniston$1,185
Columbia is #203 of 338. The spread between the
dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,942 a month —
$47,304 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Columbia0 – $2,760 / month
E-1$1,812
E-2$1,812
E-3$1,812
E-4$1,812
E-5$1,878
E-6$2,121
E-7$2,160
E-8$2,202
E-9$2,310
W-1$2,136
W-2$2,175
W-3$2,235
W-4$2,340
W-5$2,475
O-1E$2,163
O-2E$2,223
O-3E$2,361
O-1$1,914
O-2$2,118
O-3$2,232
O-4$2,517
O-5$2,724
O-6$2,745
O-7$2,760
The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.
Moving from Columbia to San Francisco at E-5
is worth $3,249 a month — about 13 promotions at this grade.
Where you are stationed outweighs rank, by a lot.
What the rate table does not 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.