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.
E-6 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,454 / month
San Francisco$5,454
Detroit$2,583
County Cost Group 830$2,580
Asheville$2,571
Elizabeth City$2,562
Norfolk$2,559
Brunswick$2,556
Buffalo$2,553
Spokane$2,553
Twenty Nine Palms MCB$2,550
Patuxent River$2,547
Helena$2,535
Birmingham$2,532
Fort Collins$2,532
Cincinnati$2,526
Eglin AFB$2,526
Houston$2,517
Rochester$2,517
Dahlonega$2,514
Wilmington$2,502
Volusia County$2,496
Dover AFB$2,493
Youngstown$1,335
Helena is #135 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 Helena0 – $3,279 / month
E-1$1,752
E-2$1,752
E-3$1,752
E-4$1,752
E-5$1,887
E-6$2,535
E-7$2,622
E-8$2,715
E-9$2,847
W-1$2,556
W-2$2,661
W-3$2,775
W-4$2,874
W-5$3,000
O-1E$2,637
O-2E$2,757
O-3E$2,895
O-1$1,968
O-2$2,526
O-3$2,772
O-4$3,039
O-5$3,231
O-6$3,258
O-7$3,279
The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.
Moving from Helena to San Francisco at E-6
is worth $2,919 a month — about 34 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.