W-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,472 / month
San Francisco$5,472
Fort Detrick$3,081
Tampa$3,063
County Cost Group 870$3,018
Philadelphia$2,997
Sacramento$2,994
Orlando$2,979
Outer Banks$2,964
Stockton$2,955
JB Lewis-McChord$2,940
Youngstown$1,350
Sacramento is #75 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 Sacramento0 – $3,576 / month
E-1$2,598
E-2$2,598
E-3$2,598
E-4$2,598
E-5$2,904
E-6$2,979
E-7$2,997
E-8$3,021
E-9$3,114
W-1$2,994
W-2$3,006
W-3$3,042
W-4$3,144
W-5$3,276
O-1E$3,000
O-2E$3,033
O-3E$3,165
O-1$2,922
O-2$2,976
O-3$3,039
O-4$3,318
O-5$3,525
O-6$3,552
O-7$3,576
Promoting to W-2 here adds $12 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 Sacramento to San Francisco at W-1 is worth $2,478 a month — about 207 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $12 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 20% 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. $2,994 a month of BAH takes more than $2,994 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.