Rates effective
01 JAN 2026 · CONUS

Basic Allowance for Housing by duty station, pay grade and dependency status. Official DoD rates, no login, no email.

Duty station or MHA
    Try Fort Liberty, Cavazos, Moore or a ZIP — old and unofficial names resolve.
    Or type your rank
    Dependents

    W-2 without dependents at Columbia draws $1,929 per month in 2026

    Permalinkbahratedesk.com/columbia-fort-jackson-sc/w-2/without/ExcelCSVDownloads cover this station.
    Columbia/Fort Jackson, SC
    W-2 · without dependents
    $1,929/ month
    $23,148 / year
    At W-2, this is #208 of 338 stations loaded · high San Francisco $5,193 · low Youngstown $1,224
    MHA SC260 · ZIPs 29002 29006 29009 29016 29020 29021 +60 more
    Your grade is calledARMYCW2USMCCWO2NAVYCWO2
    Untaxed — matching it with taxable pay takes$2,473 / mo gross
    Other dependency status here$2,175 with dependents
    In government quarters, no dependents$50.10 / mo partial
    Columbia — full sheetTap a row
    PCS compareColumbia · W-2 · $1,929/mo
    Aberdeen Proving Grounds$2,535/mo · $30,420/yr
    ▲ RAISE+$606+$7,272/yr · like +$9,323 of salary

    What this rate means

    W-2 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,193 / month
    San Francisco$5,193
    Baton Rouge$1,941
    Pensacola$1,938
    Lexington$1,935
    Bangor$1,929
    Columbia$1,929
    Mobile$1,926
    Bloomington$1,920
    San Antonio (JBSA)$1,917
    College Station$1,911
    Youngstown$1,224

    Columbia is #208 of 338. The spread between the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,969 a month — $47,628 a year, untaxed.

    Every pay grade at Columbia0 – $2,247 / month
    E-1$1,479
    E-2$1,479
    E-3$1,479
    E-4$1,479
    E-5$1,647
    E-6$1,746
    E-7$1,812
    E-8$1,932
    E-9$1,995
    W-1$1,803
    W-2$1,929
    W-3$2,004
    W-4$2,121
    W-5$2,166
    O-1E$1,875
    O-2E$1,980
    O-3E$2,109
    O-1$1,743
    O-2$1,860
    O-3$2,028
    O-4$2,151
    O-5$2,172
    O-6$2,211
    O-7$2,247

    Promoting to W-3 here adds $75 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 Columbia to San Francisco at W-2 is worth $3,264 a month — about 44 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $75 per grade here.

    02

    Dependency status is worth 13% 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. $1,929 a month of BAH takes more than $1,929 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.