E-5 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,127 / month
San Francisco$5,127
College Station$1,758
Waco$1,755
County Cost Group 770$1,752
Wilkes-Barre$1,740
Grand Forks$1,731
Fort Huachuca$1,719
Fort Benning$1,716
Auburn$1,707
Fargo$1,707
Anniston$1,185
Grand Forks is #236 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,942 a month —
$47,304 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Grand Forks0 – $2,718 / month
E-1$1,518
E-2$1,518
E-3$1,518
E-4$1,518
E-5$1,731
E-6$2,004
E-7$2,073
E-8$2,151
E-9$2,277
W-1$2,022
W-2$2,106
W-3$2,202
W-4$2,307
W-5$2,439
O-1E$2,085
O-2E$2,184
O-3E$2,325
O-1$1,770
O-2$2,001
O-3$2,199
O-4$2,478
O-5$2,682
O-6$2,703
O-7$2,718
Promoting to E-6 here adds $273 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 Grand Forks to San Francisco at E-5 is worth $3,396 a month — about 12 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $273 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 33% 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. $1,731 a month of BAH takes more than $1,731 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.