Washington DC Compensation Benchmarks 2026
Washington DC does not pay one premium. Across 125 major occupations it runs +15.3% against national medians on average, but that average hides a spread of 30.2 points between the best-paid and worst-paid occupation groups in this metro.
Which means the shortcut most pay structures rely on, a single Washington DC geographic adjustment factor, is wrong in both directions at once: it underpays the roles this market values and overpays relative to market on the roles it does not.
Computed from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV (CBSA 47900). 652 occupations carry metro-level data; 125 have Washington DC employment above 5,000 and are used here. Free to read, free to use, no account required.
Washington DC pay by occupation group
Median wage vs national · employment-weighted within group
→ Legal at +34.7% and Building & Grounds at +4.5%. Same metro, same month, 30.2 points apart.
Where Washington DC pays more
Largest premium vs national median
Where Washington DC pays less
Largest discount vs national median
The ten roles Washington DC employs most
Metro median vs national median · annualised at 2,080 hours
| Role | Washington DC | National | Gap | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General and Operations Managers | $156,458 | $105,768 | +47.9% | 113K |
| Business Operations Specialists, All Other | $104,770 | $83,054 | +26.1% | 77K |
| Software Developers | $154,939 | $135,990 | +13.9% | 69K |
| Retail Salespersons | $36,608 | $35,422 | +3.3% | 67K |
| Management Analysts | $126,818 | $101,858 | +24.5% | 62K |
| Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners | $37,835 | $36,837 | +2.7% | 59K |
| Cashiers | $35,464 | $32,885 | +7.8% | 51K |
| Home Health and Personal Care Aides | $38,522 | $35,797 | +7.6% | 50K |
| Lawyers | $195,187 | $159,661 | +22.3% | 47K |
| Registered Nurses | $102,710 | $97,552 | +5.3% | 47K |
What named Washington DC employers file for the same job
US Department of Labor H-1B filings · FY2026 Q3 (decisions 1 Oct 2025 to 30 Jun 2026) · 11,263 certified Washington DC filings from 3,365 employers
Market data tells you the range; it never tells you who pays what. Employer wage filings do. Taking one role, Software Developers, and only employers with 12+ Washington DC filings in it, the same job in the same metro is filed anywhere from the 13th to the 78th percentile of the market range on this page:
| Employer | Filings | Median filed | vs Washington DC market |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google LLC | 12 | $182,500 | P78 |
| Asurion, LLC | 23 | $180,250 | P77 |
| Government Employee Insurance Company (GEICO) | 102 | $180,000 | P77 |
| Capital One Services, LLC | 88 | $178,400 | P76 |
| Navy Federal Credit Union | 34 | $176,511 | P75 |
| Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. | 12 | $175,427 | P74 |
| Antra, Inc. | 14 | $101,500 | P13 |
| Idexcel Inc | 27 | $118,200 | P22 |
| CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc. | 12 | $126,090 | P27 |
→ 65 percentile points between named employers, inside one role, inside one metro. A candidate moving between two of these companies is not moving within a band; they are changing markets.
Median filed by role · where it sits on the Washington DC OEWS curve
What this data is, and is not. These are base salaries stated on Labor Condition Applications for visa-sponsored roles, floored by prevailing-wage rules: offered pay on a legal form, not a payroll extract, and base only, no bonus or equity. It shows how an employer positions pay for a role. Source: US Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification disclosure files, FY2026 Q3 (decisions 1 Oct 2025 to 30 Jun 2026). Employers keyed on federal tax ID; role medians computed only where an employer has 12 or more Washington DC filings in that occupation. Metro membership is by worksite county in the OMB delineation BLS uses for this metro.
Method, and one exclusion worth naming
Each Washington DC occupation is compared to its own national median from the same BLS survey vintage, so the comparison holds the job constant. Group figures are employment-weighted, meaning a group is driven by the roles Washington DC actually employs rather than by an unweighted average across job titles.
Tipped occupations are excluded. BLS reports cash wages for tipped roles, and most of the variation between metros comes from state tip-credit law rather than local pay levels. The District is phasing out its tip credit while Virginia applies the federal tipped minimum, so tipped roles in this metro would blend two legal regimes into one misleading number. Waiters, bartenders and similar roles are left out for that reason.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV (CBSA 47900). Employer-reported wages from approximately 1.1 million surveyed establishments. Analysis by CompSignal; the underlying figures are BLS, the comparison and commentary are ours.
Run this on your own roles
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