Allowances

The Allowances Division is a team of economists, statisticians, and program managers that governs the Department’s annual $28 billion station and housing allowances portfolio for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Military Compensation Policy Directorate. The Allowances staff has a wide breadth of expertise and experience across fields including survey design, market index development, statistical programming, finance, geospatial analysis, market research analysis, compensation policy, database management, and program evaluation.

The primary function of the Division is to acquire and analyze housing and cost-of-living data to determine military compensation through the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA), Outside the Continental U.S. Cost of Living Allowance (OCONUS COLA), and CONUS COLA for members of the eight Uniformed Services. The Division strives to ensure these allowances provide adequate compensation to Service members to offset typical cost-of-living expenses in duty stations across the country and around the world.