E-5 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $4,980 / month
New York City$4,980
Bridgeport$1,941
Charleston$1,941
Dahlonega$1,938
Oxford$1,938
Portland$1,932
Ann Arbor$1,920
Norfolk$1,908
Minneapolis$1,905
Whidbey Island$1,905
Fort Chaffee$996
Portland is #111 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,984 a month —
$47,808 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Portland0 – $3,063 / month
E-1$1,821
E-2$1,821
E-3$1,821
E-4$1,821
E-5$1,932
E-6$2,064
E-7$2,199
E-8$2,460
E-9$2,565
W-1$2,139
W-2$2,457
W-3$2,580
W-4$2,772
W-5$2,877
O-1E$2,376
O-2E$2,541
O-3E$2,745
O-1$2,004
O-2$2,322
O-3$2,616
O-4$2,853
O-5$2,913
O-6$3,012
O-7$3,063
Promoting to E-6 here adds $132 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 New York City at E-5 is worth $3,048 a month — about 23 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $132 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 23% 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. $1,932 a month of BAH takes more than $1,932 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.