District of Columbia minimum wage 2026: $18.40 an hour and the paycheck it pays

$18.40 an hour, in force since July 1, 2026. That is $11.15 above the federal floor of $7.25, which has not moved since July 24, 2009, and makes District of Columbia the 1st-highest of the 50 states and DC. The rate is set by annual inflation indexing.

At $18.40 and 40 hours a week, gross pay is $736 a week, $3,189 a month and $38,272 a year. A single filer with no other deductions takes home about $612 a week, $1,223 every two weeks, $2,650 a month or $31,801 a year. Social Security takes $2,373 a year and Medicare $555. District of Columbia income tax takes $1,130, so the overall rate is 16.9%.

Before. A minimum wage is a floor on gross pay — the figure your employer must pay for each hour worked, calculated before any withholding. Payroll taxes come out afterwards, so what lands in your account is always less than $18.40 an hour. In District of Columbia the gap on a full 40-hour week is $124, taking $736 gross down to about $612 net.

$10.30 an hour in direct cash wages, with tips making up the rest of the $18.40 minimum. The tip credit an employer may claim is $8.10 an hour. If tips plus the cash wage do not reach $18.40 for the hours worked, the employer has to pay the difference. A tipped employee under federal law is someone who customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips. Tips are taxable wages reported through payroll, and for 2026 up to $25,000 of qualified tips is deductible on your federal return.

Where a city, county or region carries a higher rate, that rate governs for work done there. A wage floor can be raised above the state figure but never lowered below it. No District of Columbia city currently runs above the statewide $18.40, so that one figure applies across the state. Whatever the wage floor, the payroll tax on it works the same way everywhere in District of Columbia.

$18.40 makes District of Columbia the 1st-highest of the 50 states and DC. 31 of the 50 states and DC pay above the federal $7.25; the other 20 sit exactly on it. The District of Columbia is highest at $18.40, then Washington at $17.13.

Start with your pay stub: multiply the hours worked by $18.40 and compare it with gross pay for the period, before deductions. Unpaid minimum wage is a wage claim, filed with the District of Columbia labor office under state law or with the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which carries its own filing window. Deductions that push effective pay below the minimum — uniforms, tools, till shortages — are generally not allowed. Employers must display the federal minimum wage poster in the workplace.