O-2 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,451 / month
San Francisco$5,451
Louisville$2,271
State College$2,271
Eastern Panhandle$2,250
Jacksonville$2,238
Columbus$2,235
Rock Island$2,235
Pensacola$2,232
Ogden$2,226
Provo$2,226
Youngstown$1,332
Columbus is #189 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $4,119 a month —
$49,428 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Columbus0 – $2,991 / month
E-1$1,782
E-2$1,782
E-3$1,782
E-4$1,782
E-5$1,875
E-6$2,238
E-7$2,364
E-8$2,496
E-9$2,640
W-1$2,259
W-2$2,418
W-3$2,583
W-4$2,664
W-5$2,766
O-1E$2,385
O-2E$2,556
O-3E$2,679
O-1$1,926
O-2$2,235
O-3$2,577
O-4$2,793
O-5$2,949
O-6$2,973
O-7$2,991
Promoting to O-3 here adds $342 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 Columbus to San Francisco at O-2 is worth $3,216 a month — about 9 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $342 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 21% 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. $2,235 a month of BAH takes more than $2,235 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.