Rates effective
01 JAN 2026 · CONUS

Basic Allowance for Housing by duty station, pay grade and dependency status. Official DoD rates, no login, no email.

Duty station or MHA
    Try Fort Liberty, Cavazos, Moore or a ZIP — old and unofficial names resolve.
    Or type your rank
    Dependents
    With $1,542Without $1,272

    O-2 at Meridian draws $1,542 per month with dependents in 2026, $1,272 without

    Permalinkbahratedesk.com/meridian-ms/o-2/ExcelCSVDownloads cover this station.
    Meridian, MS
    O-2 · with dependents
    $1,542/ month
    $18,504 / year
    At O-2, this is #332 of 338 stations loaded · high San Francisco $5,451 · low Youngstown $1,332
    MHA MS171 · ZIPs 39057 39301 39302 39303 39304 39305 +14 more
    Your grade is calledARMY1LTUSMC1stLtNAVYLTJGUSAF1st Lt
    Untaxed — matching it with taxable pay takes$1,977 / mo gross
    Without dependents here$1,272 / mo
    In government quarters, no dependents$50.10 / mo partial
    Meridian — full sheetTap a row
    PCS compareMeridian · O-2 · $1,542/mo
    Aberdeen Proving Grounds$2,739/mo · $32,868/yr
    ▲ 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.