W-2 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,193 / month
San Francisco$5,193
Riverside$3,393
San Luis Obispo$3,345
Portland$3,318
San Bernardino$3,309
Seattle$3,288
Indian Head Navordsta$3,279
Washington$3,258
Providence$3,252
Manchester$3,249
Youngstown$1,224
Seattle is #40 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,969 a month —
$47,628 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Seattle0 – $4,275 / month
E-1$2,271
E-2$2,271
E-3$2,271
E-4$2,271
E-5$2,625
E-6$2,931
E-7$3,015
E-8$3,291
E-9$3,525
W-1$2,946
W-2$3,288
W-3$3,549
W-4$3,930
W-5$4,047
O-1E$3,132
O-2E$3,471
O-3E$3,900
O-1$2,814
O-2$3,087
O-3$3,627
O-4$4,020
O-5$4,086
O-6$4,200
O-7$4,275
Promoting to W-3 here adds $261 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 Seattle to San Francisco at W-2 is worth $1,905 a month — about 7 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $261 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 24% 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. $3,288 a month of BAH takes more than $3,288 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.