O-5 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $6,162 / month
Westchester County$6,162
Pittsburgh$2,613
Elizabeth City$2,607
Panama City$2,595
Salt Lake City$2,586
Salem$2,580
Yakima$2,568
Volusia County$2,565
Wilmington$2,565
Cincinnati$2,562
Youngstown$1,593
Salem is #150 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $4,569 a month —
$54,828 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Salem0 – $2,736 / month
E-1$1,455
E-2$1,455
E-3$1,455
E-4$1,455
E-5$1,635
E-6$1,797
E-7$1,884
E-8$2,088
E-9$2,199
W-1$1,839
W-2$2,085
W-3$2,214
W-4$2,421
W-5$2,538
O-1E$2,001
O-2E$2,175
O-3E$2,391
O-1$1,740
O-2$1,965
O-3$2,253
O-4$2,514
O-5$2,580
O-6$2,691
O-7$2,736
Promoting to O-6 here adds $111 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 Salem to Westchester County at O-5 is worth $3,582 a month — about 32 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $111 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 25% 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. $2,580 a month of BAH takes more than $2,580 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.