W-3 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,301 / month
San Francisco$5,301
Marin$3,579
Seattle$3,549
Portsmouth$3,519
West Palm Beach$3,519
Vandenberg SFB$3,498
Washington$3,471
Burlington$3,453
Riverside$3,453
Vallejo$3,435
Youngstown$1,341
Vandenberg SFB is #36 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 Vandenberg SFB0 – $3,828 / month
E-1$2,397
E-2$2,397
E-3$2,397
E-4$2,397
E-5$2,778
E-6$2,994
E-7$3,162
E-8$3,399
E-9$3,486
W-1$3,105
W-2$3,396
W-3$3,498
W-4$3,648
W-5$3,702
O-1E$3,330
O-2E$3,465
O-3E$3,633
O-1$2,979
O-2$3,276
O-3$3,528
O-4$3,687
O-5$3,711
O-6$3,759
O-7$3,828
Promoting to W-4 here adds $150 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 Vandenberg SFB to San Francisco at W-3 is worth $1,803 a month — about 12 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $150 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. $3,498 a month of BAH takes more than $3,498 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.