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.
W-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,472 / month
San Francisco$5,472
Fort Gordon$2,175
Kings Bay$2,172
Fort Bliss$2,169
Lexington$2,169
El Centro$2,166
Fort Knox$2,157
Fort Leavenworth$2,151
County Cost Group 780$2,148
Fort Wayne$2,145
Johnson City$2,145
Columbia$2,136
Davis-Monthan AFB$2,136
Wichita Fls$2,133
Lincoln$2,130
Greensboro$2,127
Fort Campbell$2,121
Waco$2,118
San Antonio (JBSA)$2,109
Greenville$2,097
Huntsville$2,097
Roanoke$2,094
Youngstown$1,350
Columbia is #219 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 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 W-1
is worth $3,336 a month — about 86 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.