Military pay, without the runaround

Military pay is public information, but getting a straight answer usually means digging through PDFs, acronyms, and forum threads from 2011. MilPayGuide exists to help military members and their families maximize their earnings, plan for future changes, and understand their paychecks and entitlements — with tools instead of tables of tables: a full pay calculator, BAH lookup, PCS and DITY cost models, promotion and retirement projectors, and an LES audit checklist.

Why this site exists

Plenty of service members are stretched thin: a junior enlisted family living on one income, a PCS that costs more out of pocket than anyone warned you, an LES that doesn't match what you were told at in-processing. Money stress follows people to work, and the people doing that work are serving the country. MilPayGuide was built for them — to help the ones who are struggling make the most of every dollar they've earned, and to make sure nobody leaves an entitlement on the table because the rules were hard to find.

That means practical answers, not a sales pitch: what you should be paid, what a move or a promotion is really worth, which allowances you may qualify for, and how to catch a pay error before it costs you months of back-and-forth with finance.

Who runs this site

MilPayGuide is an independent, reader-focused publication — a small operation, not a lead-generation site or a bank affiliate. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Department of Defense or any branch of the Armed Forces. The site is supported by advertising, never by selling your data, and no advertiser has any input into a rate, a calculation, or a word of editorial content.

Where the numbers come from

Every figure on this site traces to an officially published source: DFAS basic pay tables, DTMO Basic Allowance for Housing rates, and the Joint Travel Regulations for PCS entitlements like MALT, per diem, and Dislocation Allowance. Anything that is a projection — such as the 2027 pay estimates shown pending the FY2027 NDAA — is labeled as a projection right next to the number, with its legislative basis stated. The methodology page documents each data source and when it was last refreshed, and the editorial policy covers how content is produced, fact-checked, and corrected.

Corrections

Accuracy is the entire point: a wrong dollar figure costs you real money at the finance office. If a number here does not match the official table, that report jumps to the front of the queue. Write to contact@milpayguide.com or use the contact form, and include the page and the source you checked against if you can. Corrections are made in place; where a correction changes a conclusion, the change is noted on the page.

What this site is not

MilPayGuide is a reference, not advice. Nothing here is financial, legal, or tax advice, and your finance office and official channels are always the final word on your individual entitlements. The tools show you what the published tables say so you can walk into that conversation knowing what you should be paid.