E-8 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,196 / month
San Francisco$5,196
Rome$2,238
County Cost Group 820$2,232
Charlotte$2,229
Bridgeport$2,226
Panama City$2,223
Grand Rapids$2,205
Jacksonville$2,199
Memphis$2,193
Fort Worth$2,184
Youngstown$1,248
Panama City is #152 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,948 a month —
$47,376 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Panama City0 – $2,736 / month
E-1$1,713
E-2$1,713
E-3$1,713
E-4$1,713
E-5$1,863
E-6$1,959
E-7$2,058
E-8$2,223
E-9$2,298
W-1$2,037
W-2$2,220
W-3$2,310
W-4$2,460
W-5$2,562
O-1E$2,160
O-2E$2,280
O-3E$2,433
O-1$1,953
O-2$2,133
O-3$2,337
O-4$2,538
O-5$2,595
O-6$2,691
O-7$2,736
Promoting to E-9 here adds $75 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 Panama City to San Francisco at E-8 is worth $2,973 a month — about 40 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $75 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 19% 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. $2,223 a month of BAH takes more than $2,223 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.