W-2 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,193 / month
San Francisco$5,193
Atlantic City$2,781
Tampa$2,778
Edwards AFB$2,760
Fort Detrick$2,760
Philadelphia$2,751
Fort Myers Beach$2,742
County Cost Group 870$2,724
Fort Pierce$2,721
Juneau$2,721
Youngstown$1,224
Philadelphia is #70 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,969 a month —
$47,628 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Philadelphia0 – $3,018 / month
E-1$1,893
E-2$1,893
E-3$1,893
E-4$1,893
E-5$2,091
E-6$2,232
E-7$2,457
E-8$2,754
E-9$2,832
W-1$2,373
W-2$2,751
W-3$2,844
W-4$2,973
W-5$2,982
O-1E$2,688
O-2E$2,814
O-3E$2,970
O-1$2,205
O-2$2,613
O-3$2,871
O-4$2,976
O-5$2,985
O-6$2,988
O-7$3,018
Promoting to W-3 here adds $93 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 Philadelphia to San Francisco at W-2 is worth $2,442 a month — about 26 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $93 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 9% 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. $2,751 a month of BAH takes more than $2,751 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.