Hawaii COLA 2026: Rates for Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island
Military COLA in Hawaii by island for 2026: the DTMO index for Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Kauai and Hawaii Island, what it pays an E-5 or O-3 a month, and why it is not taxed.
If you have orders to Hawaii, the grocery bill is the first thing people warn you about. The military knows it too, which is why every island except the small outer ones pays a cost of living allowance on top of base pay and BAH.
The part that surprises people: Hawaii COLA is not the stateside COLA. Hawaii and Alaska sit on the overseas (OCONUS) program, run by the Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO). The rates are set island by island, they are much larger than stateside COLA, and they are not taxed.
The 2026 Hawaii COLA index by island
Each location gets an index. An index of 120 means DTMO found goods and services cost about 20% more there than in the average stateside area, so COLA pays you roughly 20% of the part of your pay you would spend on those goods.
These are the indexes in DTMO's table effective 16 September 2026:
| Island | COLA index | Last change |
|---|---|---|
| Hawaii Island (Big Island) | 132 | Up from 126 on 16 Jul 2025 |
| Kauai | 126 | No change since Jan 2025 |
| Maui | 124 | Up from 118 on 16 Jul 2025 |
| Molokai | 124 | Up from 118 on 16 Jul 2025 |
| Oahu | 120 | Up from 114 on 16 Jul 2025 |
| Other islands | none | Not a COLA location |
Oahu, where most service members in Hawaii live (Schofield Barracks, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Kaneohe Bay, Camp Smith), has the lowest index of the five paid islands. The Big Island, home to Pohakuloa Training Area, has the highest.
What that pays per month
The index is not a dollar amount. Your COLA also depends on your paygrade, your years of service, and how many dependents you have, because those decide how much of your pay DTMO assumes you spend locally. Here is what the September 2026 table pays for a full 30-day month:
| Member | Oahu (120) | Maui (124) | Kauai (126) | Hawaii Island (132) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E-3, 2 years, no dependents | $528.00 | $633.60 | $686.40 | $844.80 |
| E-5, 6 years, 1 dependent | $634.92 | $761.90 | $825.39 | $1,015.87 |
| E-5, 6 years, 3 dependents | $701.75 | $842.10 | $912.28 | $1,122.80 |
| E-7, 14 years, 2 dependents | $746.67 | $896.00 | $970.67 | $1,194.67 |
| O-3, 6 years, 2 dependents | $838.33 | $1,006.00 | $1,089.83 | $1,341.33 |
To see your own number, pick your island, grade, years and family size in the overseas COLA calculator. It uses the same DTMO index and the same pay tables as the rows above.
How the number is built
The calculation comes from the DoD Financial Management Regulation, Volume 7A, Chapter 68, and it has three steps:
- Annual compensation. Your base pay plus the housing allowance a member of your grade would draw, from DTMO's annual compensation table for your grade and years of service.
- Spendable income. DTMO turns that into the share of pay a household of your size spends on everyday goods and services, from its spendable income table. Bigger families get a bigger spendable figure, which is why the 3-dependent E-5 above gets more than the 1-dependent E-5.
- Apply the index. Spendable income times (index minus 100) divided by 100 gives the annual COLA. Divide by 360 for the daily rate, and you are paid that daily rate for each day of the month.
So an index move from 114 to 120, like Oahu's in July 2025, raised COLA by roughly 40% for everyone on the island, since the part above 100 went from 14 to 20.
Why Hawaii COLA can go down
Indexes move in both directions. DTMO re-prices each location with a retail price survey and adjusts for the exchange rate where it applies, and it publishes changes on the 1st and 16th of the month. In Hawaii every paid island has held steady or risen since January 2025, but that is not guaranteed. Several Alaska locations, for comparison, dropped two points in late 2025.
If your COLA line on the LES changes and you did not move, check the DTMO table before calling finance. A new index is the usual reason.
Tax and other common questions
Is Hawaii COLA taxable? No. Overseas COLA, which includes Hawaii and Alaska, is a non-taxable allowance. That is different from stateside (CONUS) COLA, which is taxable. The military tax guide lists which allowances are taxed and which are not.
Do I get COLA in the barracks? Yes, but at a reduced rate, because DTMO assumes you buy fewer goods locally. DTMO's own calculator puts an E-3 without dependents in Oahu government quarters at $11.09 a day, about $333 for a 30-day month, against $528 for the same E-3 living off base. The MilitaryCalc calculator shows the off-base rate, so expect less on your LES if you live in the barracks.
Does BAH already cover Hawaii prices? No. BAH covers rent and utilities. COLA covers everything else you buy, like groceries, gas and clothing. You draw both. You can look up your Hawaii housing rate in the BAH calculator.
Does COLA start the day I land? COLA follows your permanent duty station. It generally starts when you report and stops when you leave on PCS orders, so check the start date on your first Hawaii LES.
Where these numbers come from
The indexes are read from DTMO's published OCONUS COLA table, and the pay tables are the ones DTMO uses in its own COLA calculator. MilitaryCalc checks DTMO every day and switches to the new period on the day it appears. We checked these figures against DTMO's own calculator and they match to the cent; the methodology page lists the sources.