O-3 without dependents, every station0 – $4,248 / month
San Diego$4,248
Camp Pendleton$4,239
Honolulu County$3,819
JB Lewis-McChord$2,784
JB Elmendorf-Richardson$2,643
Norfolk$2,505
Fort Carson$2,397
Fort Stewart$2,385
Fort Bliss$2,022
San Antonio (JBSA)$2,007
Fort Campbell$1,995
Fort Bragg$1,956
Fort Drum$1,902
Fort Benning$1,878
Fort Hood$1,833
Camp Lejeune$1,809
Fort Riley$1,611
Fort Drum is #13 of 17. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $2,637 a month —
$31,644 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Fort Drum0 – $2,496 / month
E-1$1,356
E-2$1,356
E-3$1,356
E-4$1,356
E-5$1,422
E-6$1,476
E-7$1,578
E-8$1,749
E-9$1,896
W-1$1,548
W-2$1,713
W-3$1,899
W-4$1,938
W-5$2,154
O-1E$1,662
O-2E$1,827
O-3E$1,920
O-1$1,470
O-2$1,638
O-3$1,902
O-4$2,115
O-5$2,244
O-6$2,457
O-7$2,496
Promoting to O-4 here adds $213 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 Fort Drum to San Diego at O-3 is worth $2,346 a month — about 11 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $213 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 30% 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. $1,902 a month of BAH takes more than $1,902 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.