O-2 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,451 / month
San Francisco$5,451
San Diego$4,401
Camp Pendleton$4,395
Kauai County$4,260
Staten Island$4,209
Los Angeles$4,185
West Point$4,113
Oakland$4,110
Fort Monmouth$4,077
Perth Amboy$4,065
Youngstown$1,332
Los Angeles is #16 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 Los Angeles0 – $5,526 / month
E-1$3,570
E-2$3,570
E-3$3,570
E-4$3,570
E-5$3,882
E-6$4,188
E-7$4,311
E-8$4,443
E-9$4,674
W-1$4,209
W-2$4,365
W-3$4,530
W-4$4,728
W-5$4,971
O-1E$4,332
O-2E$4,503
O-3E$4,767
O-1$3,927
O-2$4,185
O-3$4,524
O-4$5,052
O-5$5,436
O-6$5,481
O-7$5,526
Promoting to O-3 here adds $339 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 Los Angeles to San Francisco at O-2 is worth $1,266 a month — about 4 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $339 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 11% 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. $4,185 a month of BAH takes more than $4,185 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.