O-6 without dependents, every station0 – $4,641 / month
Camp Pendleton$4,641
San Diego$4,494
Honolulu County$4,413
JB Elmendorf-Richardson$3,348
JB Lewis-McChord$3,102
Norfolk$2,673
Fort Stewart$2,577
Fort Carson$2,574
Fort Campbell$2,478
Fort Drum$2,457
Fort Hood$2,325
Fort Bliss$2,178
Fort Bragg$2,154
San Antonio (JBSA)$2,103
Camp Lejeune$2,064
Fort Benning$2,034
Fort Riley$1,935
San Diego is #2 of 17. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $2,706 a month —
$32,472 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at San Diego0 – $4,575 / month
E-1$2,763
E-2$2,763
E-3$2,763
E-4$2,763
E-5$3,147
E-6$3,387
E-7$3,678
E-8$4,065
E-9$4,188
W-1$3,564
W-2$4,062
W-3$4,206
W-4$4,410
W-5$4,455
O-1E$3,972
O-2E$4,161
O-3E$4,398
O-1$3,351
O-2$3,873
O-3$4,248
O-4$4,440
O-5$4,458
O-6$4,494
O-7$4,575
Promoting to O-7 here adds $81 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 Camp Pendleton at O-6 is worth $147 a month — about 2 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $81 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. $4,494 a month of BAH takes more than $4,494 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.