Official data current

Lake Charles BAH rates

Verified · Effective 2026-01-01 · MHA LA370

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E-5 · With dependents
$1,356per month

$16,272 per year · federal tax-free allowance

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

National position #321 of 338E-5 · with dependents reference
Taxable-pay equivalent$1,738/mo Using the stated 22% comparison rate
Year-over-year change+$45/mo · +3.4%2025 $1,311 → 2026 $1,356
E-5 rate selectedMHA LA370 ZIPs 70601 70602 70605 70606 70607 70609 +15
PCS compare Lake Charles · E-5 · with dep. · $1,356/mo
Lake Charles $1,356/mo · $16,272/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$1,311
2026$1,356

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

Lake Charles — full sheet Tap a row

What this rate means

E-5 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,127 / month
San Francisco $5,127
County Cost Group 590 $1,392
Springfield $1,389
County Cost Group 580 $1,380
Columbia $1,377
Wichita $1,377
Albany $1,371
County Cost Group 570 $1,371
Cannon AFB $1,365
Paducah $1,365
County Cost Group 560 $1,362
Lake Charles $1,356
County Cost Group 550 $1,353
County Cost Group 540 $1,344
County Cost Group 530 $1,338
Stevens Point $1,338
County Cost Group 520 $1,332
County Cost Group 510 $1,329
Fort Riley $1,314
Alexandria $1,290
Meridian $1,290
Fort Chaffee $1,263
Anniston $1,185

Lake Charles is #321 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 Lake Charles0 – $2,502 / month
E-1 $1,287
E-2 $1,287
E-3 $1,287
E-4 $1,287
E-5 $1,356
E-6 $1,626
E-7 $1,755
E-8 $1,893
E-9 $2,061
W-1 $1,644
W-2 $1,809
W-3 $1,983
W-4 $2,088
W-5 $2,223
O-1E $1,776
O-2E $1,956
O-3E $2,109
O-1 $1,398
O-2 $1,623
O-3 $1,977
O-4 $2,265
O-5 $2,472
O-6 $2,490
O-7 $2,502

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

Moving from Lake Charles to San Francisco at E-5 is worth $3,771 a month — about 14 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…