W-4 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $6,963 / month
Westchester County$6,963
San Francisco$5,892
New York City$5,883
Nantucket$5,772
Maui County$5,760
Boston$5,457
Stevens Point$1,779
San Francisco is #2 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $5,184 a month —
$62,208 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at San Francisco0 – $7,215 / month
E-1$4,764
E-2$4,764
E-3$4,764
E-4$4,764
E-5$5,127
E-6$5,454
E-7$5,490
E-8$5,529
E-9$5,799
W-1$5,472
W-2$5,505
W-3$5,559
W-4$5,892
W-5$6,297
O-1E$5,493
O-2E$5,547
O-3E$5,955
O-1$5,172
O-2$5,451
O-3$5,556
O-4$6,444
O-5$7,089
O-6$7,155
O-7$7,215
Promoting to W-5 here adds $405 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 Westchester County at W-4 is worth $1,071 a month — about 3 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $405 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 8% 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. $5,892 a month of BAH takes more than $5,892 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.