W-2 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,193 / month
San Francisco$5,193
San Diego$4,062
Camp Pendleton$4,053
Florida Keys$3,990
Cape Cod-Plymouth$3,945
Los Angeles$3,945
Kauai County$3,894
Oakland$3,831
Staten Island$3,831
Honolulu County$3,717
Youngstown$1,224
Los Angeles is #16 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,969 a month —
$47,628 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Los Angeles0 – $4,590 / month
E-1$2,679
E-2$2,679
E-3$2,679
E-4$2,679
E-5$3,048
E-6$3,291
E-7$3,582
E-8$3,948
E-9$4,032
W-1$3,468
W-2$3,945
W-3$4,044
W-4$4,212
W-5$4,341
O-1E$3,879
O-2E$4,014
O-3E$4,179
O-1$3,255
O-2$3,780
O-3$4,074
O-4$4,314
O-5$4,386
O-6$4,509
O-7$4,590
Promoting to W-3 here adds $99 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 W-2 is worth $1,248 a month — about 13 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $99 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. $3,945 a month of BAH takes more than $3,945 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.