W-2 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,193 / month
San Francisco$5,193
Honolulu County$3,717
Miami$3,690
Fort Monmouth$3,654
Hawaii County$3,645
Ventura$3,633
West Point$3,597
Trenton$3,567
Monterey$3,546
Essex CO$3,534
Youngstown$1,224
Ventura is #24 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 Ventura0 – $4,269 / month
E-1$2,652
E-2$2,652
E-3$2,652
E-4$2,652
E-5$3,018
E-6$3,228
E-7$3,381
E-8$3,636
E-9$3,771
W-1$3,333
W-2$3,633
W-3$3,789
W-4$4,020
W-5$4,101
O-1E$3,534
O-2E$3,741
O-3E$4,002
O-1$3,213
O-2$3,486
O-3$3,834
O-4$4,080
O-5$4,122
O-6$4,194
O-7$4,269
Promoting to W-3 here adds $156 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 Ventura to San Francisco at W-2 is worth $1,560 a month — about 10 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $156 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 13% 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. $3,633 a month of BAH takes more than $3,633 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.