Official data current

County Cost Group 540 BAH rates

Verified · Effective 2026-01-01 · MHA ZZ540

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E-6 · With dependents
$1,641per month

$19,692 per year · federal tax-free allowance

Official DoD / DTMO rate · CONUS BAH, not an estimate

National position #322 of 338E-6 · with dependents reference
Taxable-pay equivalent$2,104/mo Using the stated 22% comparison rate
Year-over-year change+$3/mo · +0.2%2025 $1,638 → 2026 $1,641
E-6 rate selectedMHA ZZ540 ZIPs 24701 24712 24714 24715 24724 24729 +360
PCS compare County Cost Group 540 · E-6 · with dep. · $1,641/mo
County Cost Group 540 $1,641/mo · $19,692/yr
CURRENT

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.

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Rate history

How updates work
2025$1,638
2026$1,641

Verified official history. With-dependents rate shown; use the dependency switch above for its exact comparison.

COUNTY COST GROUP

This is not one installation. DTMO groups counties without a dedicated base into a "County Cost Group". The rate applies to any member whose duty location falls in one of the ZIP codes listed above.

County Cost Group 540 — full sheet Tap a row

What this rate means

E-6 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,454 / month
San Francisco $5,454
County Cost Group 590 $1,692
Wichita $1,689
County Cost Group 580 $1,680
Erie $1,680
Fort Chaffee $1,680
Alexandria $1,677
County Cost Group 570 $1,668
County Cost Group 560 $1,659
County Cost Group 550 $1,650
St Mary And Terrebonne $1,650
County Cost Group 540 $1,641
County Cost Group 530 $1,635
County Cost Group 520 $1,629
Monroe $1,629
County Cost Group 510 $1,626
Lake Charles $1,626
Columbia $1,623
Gulfport $1,620
Cannon AFB $1,593
Altus AFB $1,563
Meridian $1,545
Youngstown $1,335

County Cost Group 540 is #322 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 County Cost Group 5400 – $2,232 / month
E-1 $1,242
E-2 $1,242
E-3 $1,242
E-4 $1,242
E-5 $1,344
E-6 $1,641
E-7 $1,707
E-8 $1,782
E-9 $1,890
W-1 $1,659
W-2 $1,737
W-3 $1,830
W-4 $1,911
W-5 $2,016
O-1E $1,719
O-2E $1,815
O-3E $1,926
O-1 $1,386
O-2 $1,638
O-3 $1,827
O-4 $2,046
O-5 $2,205
O-6 $2,220
O-7 $2,232

The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.

Moving from County Cost Group 540 to San Francisco at E-6 is worth $3,813 a month — about 58 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.

Source: DoD Defense Travel Management Office, effective 01 JAN 2026. How these rates are sourced and checked.

Source record

Where these numbers come from

Official fields remain unchanged. Years are aligned by DTMO's MHA code; no missing value is interpolated.

2026 official releaseDTMO source archive
Effective
2026-01-01
Retrieved
2026-09-05
Last verified
2026-09-07
SHA-256
5446fed831e1…
2025 official releaseDTMO source archive
Effective
2025-01-01
Retrieved
2026-09-07
Last verified
2026-09-07
SHA-256
32d18c4220e8…