O-2 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,091 / month
New York City$5,091
Aberdeen Proving Grounds$2,412
Eglin AFB$2,406
Oxford$2,391
Dallas$2,388
St. Louis$2,385
Beaufort$2,379
Birmingham$2,370
Norfolk$2,367
Patuxent River$2,364
Youngstown$1,176
St. Louis is #95 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,915 a month —
$46,980 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at St. Louis0 – $2,784 / month
E-1$1,701
E-2$1,701
E-3$1,701
E-4$1,701
E-5$1,947
E-6$2,112
E-7$2,271
E-8$2,487
E-9$2,541
W-1$2,220
W-2$2,484
W-3$2,553
W-4$2,655
W-5$2,700
O-1E$2,433
O-2E$2,529
O-3E$2,646
O-1$2,094
O-2$2,385
O-3$2,571
O-4$2,685
O-5$2,703
O-6$2,739
O-7$2,784
Promoting to O-3 here adds $186 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 St. Louis to New York City at O-2 is worth $2,706 a month — about 15 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $186 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 11% 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. $2,385 a month of BAH takes more than $2,385 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.