W-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,472 / month
San Francisco$5,472
Chicago$3,720
Portsmouth$3,717
Vandenberg SFB$3,660
West Palm Beach$3,624
Portland$3,597
Riverside$3,564
Manchester$3,546
County Cost Group 890$3,540
Vallejo$3,513
Youngstown$1,350
Portland is #40 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $4,122 a month —
$49,464 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Portland0 – $5,322 / month
E-1$3,087
E-2$3,087
E-3$3,087
E-4$3,087
E-5$3,252
E-6$3,576
E-7$3,825
E-8$4,098
E-9$4,425
W-1$3,597
W-2$3,936
W-3$4,272
W-4$4,482
W-5$4,740
O-1E$3,876
O-2E$4,221
O-3E$4,524
O-1$3,297
O-2$3,573
O-3$4,260
O-4$4,830
O-5$5,235
O-6$5,280
O-7$5,322
Promoting to W-2 here adds $339 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 Portland to San Francisco at W-1 is worth $1,875 a month — about 6 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $339 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 18% 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. $3,597 a month of BAH takes more than $3,597 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.