Official data current

Meridian BAH rates

Verified · Effective 2026-01-01 · MHA MS171

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O-3 · With dependents
$1,953per month

$23,436 per year · federal tax-free allowance

Official DoD / DTMO rate · CONUS BAH, not an estimate

National position #301 of 338O-3 · with dependents reference
Taxable-pay equivalent$2,504/mo Using the stated 22% comparison rate
Year-over-year change+$180/mo · +10.2%2025 $1,773 → 2026 $1,953
O-3 rate selectedMHA MS171 ZIPs 39057 39301 39302 39303 39304 39305 +14
PCS compare Meridian · O-3 · with dep. · $1,953/mo
Meridian $1,953/mo · $23,436/yr
CURRENT

Pick a station below to see what the move is worth a year, before tax. Orders rarely arrive as one option — add several and rank them.

Comparison uses with-dependents rates. Differences are annual and untaxed. Rate protection is not applied — a PCS resets you to the new location's current-year rate.

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Rate history

How updates work
2025$1,773
2026$1,953

Verified official history. With-dependents rate shown; use the dependency switch above for its exact comparison.

Meridian — full sheet Tap a row

What this rate means

O-3 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $6,633 / month
Westchester County $6,633
Akron $1,977
Lake Charles $1,977
Little Rock $1,974
Oklahoma City $1,974
County Cost Group 680 $1,968
Fort Chaffee $1,962
County Cost Group 670 $1,959
Sault Ste Marie $1,959
Beaumont $1,956
Fort Riley $1,953
Meridian $1,953
Alexandria $1,950
County Cost Group 660 $1,944
Fort Polk $1,938
Wichita $1,938
County Cost Group 650 $1,935
Montgomery $1,932
County Cost Group 640 $1,926
Sparta $1,923
County Cost Group 630 $1,917
Huntington $1,917
Anniston $1,686

Meridian is #301 of 338. The spread between the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $4,947 a month — $59,364 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

The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.

Moving from Meridian to Westchester County at O-3 is worth $4,680 a month — about 19 promotions at this grade. Where you are stationed outweighs rank, by a lot.

What the rate table does not 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.

Source: DoD Defense Travel Management Office, effective 01 JAN 2026. How these rates are sourced and checked.

Source record

Where these numbers come from

Official fields remain unchanged. Years are aligned by DTMO's MHA code; no missing value is interpolated.

2026 official releaseDTMO source archive
Effective
2026-01-01
Retrieved
2026-09-05
Last verified
2026-09-07
SHA-256
5446fed831e1…
2025 official releaseDTMO source archive
Effective
2025-01-01
Retrieved
2026-09-07
Last verified
2026-09-07
SHA-256
32d18c4220e8…