DC Minimum Wage 2026: $18.40, Adjusted Every July 1

The District of Columbia minimum wage is $18.40 an hour from July 1, 2026, up from $17.95, for all employers regardless of size. It rises every July 1 with Washington-area inflation, and DOES must publish the new rate at least 30 days before it takes effect. The tipped cash wage is $10.30 an hour, set by law at 56% of the minimum wage, and tips must bring the employee to $18.40. The tipped share rises to 60% on July 1, 2028. There is no youth or training rate, and no separate city or county rate inside DC.

DC at a glance

How the DC minimum wage is set

The rate comes from D.C. Code §32-1003, as amended by the Fair Shot Minimum Wage Amendment Act of 2016. That law stepped the rate up to $15.00 on July 1, 2020. Since July 1, 2021 it has risen every July 1 in proportion to the annual average increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers in the Washington metropolitan area for the previous calendar year, rounded to the nearest 5 cents.

For July 1, 2026 the DOES public notice reports a 2.4% CPI increase for 2025, which moved the rate from $17.95 to $18.40. The statute requires the Mayor to publish each new rate in the DC Register, on the DOES website and in an employer bulletin at least 30 days before it takes effect, so the July 1, 2027 rate should be published by about the end of May 2027. The rate can’t fall: the adjustment applies only to an increase. If the federal minimum wage ever rises above the DC rate, DC law sets its floor at the federal rate plus $1.

DC tipped minimum wage

DC voters approved Initiative 82 in 2022 to phase out the tip credit, and the Council has since rewritten the schedule. As the code reads today, the tipped cash wage is 56% of the minimum wage from July 1, 2026, which DOES puts at $10.30 an hour, up from $10.00. The statute then sets it at 60% from July 1, 2028, 65% from July 1, 2030, 70% from July 1, 2032 and 75% from July 1, 2034.

Tips must make up the difference: if a tipped employee’s hourly tips, averaged weekly, plus the cash wage don’t reach $18.40, the employer pays the gap. The tip credit is available only if the employer has given the written notice at hire that the law requires, including any tip-sharing policy and the percentage deducted for credit card fees, has posted any tip-sharing policy, and lets employees keep their tips apart from lawful sharing among tipped staff.

Who is covered, and the exceptions

The rate applies to every employer, whatever its size. It covers an employee who regularly spends more than half their working time in DC, or who is based in DC and spends a substantial amount of time there and not more than half in any one state. Separately, an employee who does at least 2 hours of work in DC for the same employer in a workweek must get at least the DC rate for each hour worked in DC.

DC has no youth, training or small-employer rate. D.C. Code §32-1004 exempts bona fide executive, administrative and professional employees, outside salespeople and home newspaper carriers. Workers with disabilities can be paid less only under a federal certificate. Security officers in DC office buildings have a separate, higher floor tied to the federal Service Contract Act rate for the guard 1 classification.

What this means for hiring

DC’s wage floor moves every July, and DC also requires the pay range in every job listing. So the rate you post is checked twice: against the minimum, and against what candidates see from other employers on the same feed. Hourly candidates compare the first line of the ad, so a range that starts at the floor tends to lose to one that starts above it.

Build the July increase into your pay bands and your posted ranges before it lands. To see what a DC hire costs at the wage you plan to pay, use the employee cost calculator. For the rest of the District’s rules on breaks, overtime, final pay and hiring, see DC labor laws, and for how to write a posting that meets the range rule, see pay transparency laws by state.

Frequently asked questions

Part of Boostpoint’s minimum wage by state series.