W-3 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,301 / month
San Francisco$5,301
Outer Banks$2,787
Madison$2,778
Baltimore$2,766
Fort Pierce$2,760
Stockton$2,757
Ballston Spa$2,754
Ketchikan$2,751
JB Lewis-McChord$2,751
Patrick SFB$2,706
Youngstown$1,341
Stockton is #83 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,960 a month —
$47,520 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Stockton0 – $3,351 / month
E-1$1,926
E-2$1,926
E-3$1,926
E-4$1,926
E-5$2,187
E-6$2,340
E-7$2,445
E-8$2,634
E-9$2,742
W-1$2,418
W-2$2,631
W-3$2,757
W-4$2,961
W-5$3,105
O-1E$2,550
O-2E$2,718
O-3E$2,925
O-1$2,331
O-2$2,523
O-3$2,793
O-4$3,075
O-5$3,156
O-6$3,294
O-7$3,351
Promoting to W-4 here adds $204 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 Stockton to San Francisco at W-3 is worth $2,544 a month — about 12 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $204 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 20% 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. $2,757 a month of BAH takes more than $2,757 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.