W-3 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,301 / month
San Francisco$5,301
Los Angeles$4,044
Florida Keys$4,011
Staten Island$3,993
Cape Cod-Plymouth$3,960
Oakland$3,948
Fort Monmouth$3,834
West Point$3,819
Honolulu County$3,795
Ventura$3,789
Youngstown$1,341
Oakland is #19 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,960 a month —
$47,520 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Oakland0 – $4,419 / month
E-1$2,667
E-2$2,667
E-3$2,667
E-4$2,667
E-5$3,000
E-6$3,213
E-7$3,483
E-8$3,834
E-9$3,933
W-1$3,378
W-2$3,831
W-3$3,948
W-4$4,131
W-5$4,224
O-1E$3,756
O-2E$3,912
O-3E$4,107
O-1$3,180
O-2$3,666
O-3$3,981
O-4$4,203
O-5$4,254
O-6$4,341
O-7$4,419
Promoting to W-4 here adds $183 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 Oakland to San Francisco at W-3 is worth $1,353 a month — about 7 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $183 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. $3,948 a month of BAH takes more than $3,948 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.