O-3 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,331 / month
San Francisco$5,331
New Haven$3,483
Riverside$3,471
Portland$3,456
Vallejo$3,444
Manchester$3,396
County Cost Group 890$3,387
Providence$3,357
San Bernardino$3,339
Fitchburg$3,330
Youngstown$1,344
Manchester is #43 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,987 a month —
$47,844 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Manchester0 – $4,299 / month
E-1$2,250
E-2$2,250
E-3$2,250
E-4$2,250
E-5$2,613
E-6$2,823
E-7$2,997
E-8$3,252
E-9$3,348
W-1$2,940
W-2$3,249
W-3$3,363
W-4$3,582
W-5$3,846
O-1E$3,174
O-2E$3,327
O-3E$3,516
O-1$2,805
O-2$3,120
O-3$3,396
O-4$3,801
O-5$3,960
O-6$4,224
O-7$4,299
Promoting to O-4 here adds $405 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 Manchester to San Francisco at O-3 is worth $1,935 a month — about 5 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $405 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 25% 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. $3,396 a month of BAH takes more than $3,396 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.