E-5 with dependents, every station0 – $3,975 / month
San Diego$3,975
Camp Pendleton$3,963
Honolulu County$3,663
JB Elmendorf-Richardson$2,874
JB Lewis-McChord$2,556
Norfolk$2,430
Fort Carson$2,358
Fort Stewart$2,310
San Antonio (JBSA)$1,869
Fort Campbell$1,815
Fort Bliss$1,809
Fort Bragg$1,806
Fort Benning$1,716
Fort Hood$1,695
Fort Drum$1,665
Camp Lejeune$1,584
Fort Riley$1,314
Norfolk is #6 of 17. The spread between
the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $2,661 a month —
$31,932 a year, untaxed.
Every pay grade at Norfolk0 – $3,366 / month
E-1$2,229
E-2$2,229
E-3$2,229
E-4$2,229
E-5$2,430
E-6$2,559
E-7$2,604
E-8$2,661
E-9$2,796
W-1$2,574
W-2$2,628
W-3$2,697
W-4$2,832
W-5$3,000
O-1E$2,613
O-2E$2,685
O-3E$2,859
O-1$2,454
O-2$2,556
O-3$2,694
O-4$3,054
O-5$3,318
O-6$3,342
O-7$3,366
Promoting to E-6 here adds $129 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 Norfolk to San Diego at E-5 is worth $1,545 a month — about 12 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $129 per grade here.
02
Dependency status is worth 27% 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. $2,430 a month of BAH takes more than $2,430 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.