Army LES Decoder — What Every Line on Your Leave and Earnings Statement Means

Look up a line from your LES

Every code that appears on a standard Army LES. The other services use the same statement with minor differences.

… or type what you are looking at

Matches on the code and on the explanation.

The four money columns

Entitlements — everything the military pays you.
Deductions — taxes and amounts withheld.
Allotments — money you direct to a third party.
Summary — entitlements − deductions − allotments = net pay.

Your LES is issued monthly through myPay at mypay.dfas.mil. If the arithmetic on it does not work out, the Remarks block at the bottom usually explains why.

Pick a field on the left, or type a code, to see what it means and how to verify it.

The one habit worth forming

Check that your entitlements match the official 2026 rates for your grade, time in service and duty ZIP. Pay errors are common, they compound month after month, and DFAS will recover an overpayment from you whether or not the error was yours.

Military Pay Calculator — base pay, BAH and BAS for your grade and station.
BAH Calculator — housing allowance by ZIP code.
BAS Calculator — subsistence allowance and meal deductions.
Take-Home Pay Calculator — whether the deductions add up.
TSP Calculator — contributions and the government match.

The whole statement, block by block

Verifying your LES in five minutes

Base pay — check it against the 2026 pay table for your grade and years of service. The pay chart has every cell.
BAH — check the VHA ZIP field is your current duty station and the BAQ TYPE matches your dependent status. A stale ZIP after a PCS is the most common pay error there is.
BAS — $476.95 for enlisted, $328.48 for officers in 2026. If meals are being deducted, check the days are right.
TSP — confirm the percentages match what you elected, and that you are at 5% or above if you are under BRS. Below 5% you are giving up the government match.
Remarks — read it every month. Debt notifications, BAH rate changes and SGLI reminders all appear here and nowhere else.

If you find an error, raise it with your servicing finance office immediately and keep the LES. An overpayment becomes a debt DFAS will collect from future pay, and the longer it runs undetected the larger it gets.

Informational only. This describes a standard Army Leave and Earnings Statement; the other services use the same document with minor differences, and formats change over time. Dollar figures shown as examples are illustrative except where a 2026 rate is named. Your servicing finance office and DFAS are authoritative on your own pay.