O-3 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,331 / month
San Francisco$5,331
Provo$2,160
Kings Bay$2,157
Nellis AFB$2,151
Boise$2,148
Rapid City$2,124
Rock Island$2,118
Toledo$2,112
Fargo$2,106
Columbus$2,103
Youngstown$1,344
Rapid City is #191 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,987 a month —
$47,844 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Rapid City0 – $2,496 / month
E-1$1,440
E-2$1,440
E-3$1,440
E-4$1,440
E-5$1,545
E-6$1,656
E-7$1,806
E-8$2,037
E-9$2,094
W-1$1,746
W-2$2,034
W-3$2,103
W-4$2,226
W-5$2,328
O-1E$1,983
O-2E$2,082
O-3E$2,202
O-1$1,614
O-2$1,929
O-3$2,124
O-4$2,304
O-5$2,361
O-6$2,457
O-7$2,496
Promoting to O-4 here adds $180 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 Rapid City to San Francisco at O-3 is worth $3,207 a month — about 18 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $180 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 17% 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. $2,124 a month of BAH takes more than $2,124 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.