▲ RAISE+$1,197+$14,364/yr · like +$18,415 of salary
What this rate means
O-2 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,451 / month
San Francisco$5,451
Columbia$1,620
Gulfport$1,617
Cannon AFB$1,590
Altus AFB$1,560
Meridian$1,542
Albany$1,536
Hattiesburg$1,521
Vance AFB$1,509
Fort Sill$1,491
Youngstown$1,332
Meridian is #332 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 Meridian0 – $2,412 / month
E-1$1,194
E-2$1,194
E-3$1,194
E-4$1,194
E-5$1,290
E-6$1,545
E-7$1,692
E-8$1,854
E-9$2,028
W-1$1,563
W-2$1,758
W-3$1,959
W-4$2,052
W-5$2,169
O-1E$1,722
O-2E$1,929
O-3E$2,070
O-1$1,329
O-2$1,542
O-3$1,953
O-4$2,202
O-5$2,382
O-6$2,400
O-7$2,412
Promoting to O-3 here adds $411 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 Meridian to San Francisco at O-2 is worth $3,909 a month — about 10 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $411 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 21% 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. $1,542 a month of BAH takes more than $1,542 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.