W-3 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,301 / month
San Francisco$5,301
Corpus Christi$2,019
Davis-Monthan AFB$2,019
Des Moines$2,007
Tallahassee$2,007
Columbia$2,004
Greenville$2,004
Roanoke$1,998
Fort Bliss$1,992
San Antonio (JBSA)$1,986
Youngstown$1,341
Columbia is #212 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,960 a month —
$47,520 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-4 here adds $117 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-3 is worth $3,297 a month — about 28 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $117 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 12% 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. $2,004 a month of BAH takes more than $2,004 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.