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
County Cost Group 580$1,698
Erie$1,695
County Cost Group 570$1,686
County Cost Group 560$1,677
County Cost Group 550$1,668
St Mary And Terrebonne$1,665
County Cost Group 540$1,659
County Cost Group 530$1,653
Monroe$1,650
County Cost Group 520$1,647
Columbia$1,644
County Cost Group 510$1,644
Lake Charles$1,644
Gulfport$1,635
Cannon AFB$1,611
Altus AFB$1,581
Meridian$1,563
Albany$1,557
Hattiesburg$1,539
Vance AFB$1,530
Anniston$1,509
Youngstown$1,350
Columbia is #326 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 – $2,619 / 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 San Francisco at W-1
is worth $3,828 a month — about 16 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.