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.
O-3 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $6,633 / month
Westchester County$6,633
Minot AFB$2,175
Brownsville$2,169
China Lake$2,154
County Cost Group 750$2,154
Frankfort$2,133
Lexington$2,130
Champaign$2,127
Lansing$2,127
San Antonio (JBSA)$2,127
Laughlin AFB$2,121
Columbia$2,118
Sioux Falls$2,106
Tulsa$2,106
County Cost Group 740$2,097
Wright-Patterson AFB$2,097
Camp Lejeune$2,085
Wilkes-Barre$2,085
White Sands MR$2,082
County Cost Group 730$2,064
Topeka$2,064
Fort Benning$2,058
Anniston$1,686
Columbia is #263 of 338. The spread between the
dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $4,947 a month —
$59,364 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Columbia0 – $2,619 / month
E-1$1,284
E-2$1,284
E-3$1,284
E-4$1,284
E-5$1,377
E-6$1,623
E-7$1,803
E-8$2,001
E-9$2,199
W-1$1,644
W-2$1,884
W-3$2,127
W-4$2,226
W-5$2,352
O-1E$1,839
O-2E$2,091
O-3E$2,247
O-1$1,413
O-2$1,620
O-3$2,118
O-4$2,391
O-5$2,583
O-6$2,604
O-7$2,619
The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.
Moving from Columbia to Westchester County at O-3
is worth $4,515 a month — about 17 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.