O-2E without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,268 / month
San Francisco$5,268
Bridgeport$2,397
Astoria$2,391
County Cost Group 830$2,391
Knoxville$2,388
Traverse City$2,388
Cincinnati$2,385
Fort Carson$2,385
Ocala$2,385
Rome$2,382
Youngstown$1,305
Traverse City is #129 of 338. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,963 a month —
$47,556 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Traverse City0 – $3,102 / month
E-1$1,716
E-2$1,716
E-3$1,716
E-4$1,716
E-5$1,896
E-6$2,103
E-7$2,175
E-8$2,253
E-9$2,439
W-1$2,118
W-2$2,214
W-3$2,463
W-4$2,820
W-5$2,922
O-1E$2,187
O-2E$2,388
O-3E$2,796
O-1$1,998
O-2$2,178
O-3$2,535
O-4$2,898
O-5$2,955
O-6$3,051
O-7$3,102
Promoting to O-3E here adds $408 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 Traverse City to San Francisco at O-2E is worth $2,880 a month — about 7 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $408 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 28% 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. $2,388 a month of BAH takes more than $2,388 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.