E-6 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,070 / month
New York City$5,070
San Francisco$4,443
Nantucket$4,101
Santa Clara County$4,086
Westchester County$4,026
Boston$3,948
Youngstown$1,077
San Francisco is #2 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,993 a month —
$47,916 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at San Francisco0 – $5,634 / month
E-1$3,573
E-2$3,573
E-3$3,573
E-4$3,573
E-5$4,086
E-6$4,443
E-7$4,782
E-8$5,196
E-9$5,286
W-1$4,644
W-2$5,193
W-3$5,301
W-4$5,454
W-5$5,496
O-1E$5,124
O-2E$5,268
O-3E$5,445
O-1$4,401
O-2$5,007
O-3$5,331
O-4$5,481
O-5$5,499
O-6$5,532
O-7$5,634
Promoting to E-7 here adds $339 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 Francisco to New York City at E-6 is worth $627 a month — about 2 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $339 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. $4,443 a month of BAH takes more than $4,443 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.