The Military Pay Calculator is the perfect tool to help you figure out just how much you make as a U.S. service member. While knowing your basic military pay rate may be easy enough, it's much harder to understand how all of the special allowances, including Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), impact what you take home each month.
About the Military Pay Calculator
That's why we created the Military.com Military Pay Calculator. With just a few taps or clicks, you can easily determine how much military pay you will make before taxes, both now and in the future. Getting ready to move? Factor in the BAH for your new ZIP code. Getting promoted or deployed? Adjust your information, and see what you'll make.
How Much Does the Military Pay?
The best way to figure out how much the military pays is to use the military pay calculator or check military pay charts. If you're not yet in the service, start by looking at E-1, the amount you'll be paid during Basic Training.
How much you get paid over time will change based on your rank, location, job and more.
Related: Learn more about military ranks
About Military Pay
Service members receive a base salary set by law. Each year, Congress approves a small military pay raise to account for inflation -- typically between 1% and 3%. The amount is tied to each person's rank or "paygrade," and is the minimum amount a service member can expect to receive before taxes and any other deductions.
Troops also typically receive a variety of allowances on top of their military pay. Those can include Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS), Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) based on location, a clothing allowance and more.
Military members may also receive other special pay amounts tied to their specific military jobs or deployment. For example, troops might receive Hazardous Duty Pay, Imminent Danger Pay and Jump Pay.
The military pay calculator factors in all of those pays in one easy-to-use place.
Which Military Branch Pays the Most?
Basic military pay amounts are set by law and are the same for each branch of the military. Pay amounts are tied to paygrade. While the different services often customize the names of their ranks, all of those ranks are tied to that same paygrade chart.
Service members do, however, receive fluctuating pay based on their location, special skills, family size or risk associated with their job. For example, a deployed Special Forces soldier with a family stationed in a high cost-of-living area will bring home a lot more pay in the form of allowances and special pays than an unmarried soldier of the same rank with a desk job in Oklahoma. Both soldiers, however, will have the same base pay.
