Per Diem Calculator

The Government pays per diem by the whole day: the actual amount paid for lodging, limited to the lodging portion of the locality per diem rate, plus the meals and incidental expense (M&IE) rate, and the total may not exceed the locality maximum (JTR par. 020301). For each full day at the TDY location you receive the actual cost of lodging up to the ceiling of the locality where you are at midnight, plus the applicable M&IE rate (par. 020310.C).

The travel days are different. On the day you leave, M&IE is 75 percent of the rate of the place you sleep that night; on the day you return, it is 75 percent of the preceding day’s rate (par. 020310.A and E; Table 2-20). A trip of 12 hours or less earns no per diem at all, and a trip of more than 12 but less than 24 hours earns 75 percent of the M&IE rate, plus lodging up to the ceiling if lodging was required (Table 2-20, rows 1 to 3).

The locality meal rate applies when you must buy every meal. When you are lodged in Government quarters on an installation and the travel authorization directs one or two meals in the dining facility, the proportional meal rate (PMR) applies: the average of the standard Government meal rate and the meals portion of the locality M&IE, rounded up to the nearest dollar, plus incidentals. When quarters and three dining-facility meals are available and directed, the Government meal rate (GMR) plus incidentals applies. When all three meals are provided at no cost, only the incidental rate is paid. None of these reduced rates applies on a day you are traveling (Table 2-17), and a meal served by an airline, a friend or a hotel that charges the same with or without breakfast does not change anything (par. 020310.C; Table 2-18).

CONUS lodging ceilings and M&IE are the General Services Administration’s per diem table for the fiscal year of the trip; a new table starts every October 1, and many localities carry seasonal lodging ceilings that change by month, which this page applies night by night. Locations GSA does not list receive the standard CONUS rate. Overseas localities use the Defense Travel Management Office table, which splits M&IE into meals and incidentals and publishes the proportional meal rate for each location.