E-6 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,454 / month
San Francisco$5,454
Long Island$4,773
Maui County$4,770
Martha's Vineyard$4,593
Hanscom AFB$4,479
San Diego$4,404
Camp Pendleton$4,398
Kauai County$4,266
Staten Island$4,215
Los Angeles$4,188
Youngstown$1,335
San Diego is #12 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $4,119 a month —
$49,428 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at San Diego0 – $5,586 / month
E-1$3,666
E-2$3,666
E-3$3,666
E-4$3,666
E-5$3,975
E-6$4,404
E-7$4,446
E-8$4,488
E-9$4,671
W-1$4,425
W-2$4,464
W-3$4,521
W-4$4,731
W-5$4,992
O-1E$4,449
O-2E$4,506
O-3E$4,770
O-1$4,032
O-2$4,401
O-3$4,518
O-4$5,082
O-5$5,493
O-6$5,541
O-7$5,586
Promoting to E-7 here adds $42 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 San Diego to San Francisco at E-6 is worth $1,050 a month — about 25 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $42 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 30% 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. $4,404 a month of BAH takes more than $4,404 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.