W-3 without dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,301 / month
San Francisco$5,301
Traverse City$2,463
Pittsburgh$2,454
Rome$2,448
Knoxville$2,436
Whidbey Island$2,436
County Cost Group 830$2,427
Cincinnati$2,412
Fort Collins$2,409
Asheville$2,406
Youngstown$1,341
Whidbey Island is #130 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 Whidbey Island0 – $3,144 / month
E-1$1,839
E-2$1,839
E-3$1,839
E-4$1,839
E-5$1,905
E-6$2,058
E-7$2,157
E-8$2,265
E-9$2,412
W-1$2,076
W-2$2,208
W-3$2,436
W-4$2,772
W-5$2,910
O-1E$2,175
O-2E$2,367
O-3E$2,739
O-1$1,950
O-2$2,160
O-3$2,499
O-4$2,880
O-5$2,958
O-6$3,090
O-7$3,144
Promoting to W-4 here adds $336 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 Whidbey Island to San Francisco at W-3 is worth $2,865 a month — about 9 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $336 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. $2,436 a month of BAH takes more than $2,436 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.