District of Columbia Minimum Wage Calculator

From July 1, 2026, DC’s ordinary minimum is $18.40 an hour. At 40 hours that pays $736 gross weekly or $38,272 over 52 identical weeks. The published eligible tipped cash floor is $10.30; an employer still owes any shortfall between cash plus eligible retained tips and the full minimum.

Time card Calculate pay for a covered hourly job

Work date Weeks at this rate and schedule

Hours worked each day this week

Week total 40 h

Enter zero on days off. Overtime here depends on the weekly total.

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Tips retained in that week ($) Cash-wage treatment Ordinary adult hourly employment covered by the District minimum and overtime after 40 hours. No security-guard contract schedule, specified hotel/domestic exception, agricultural or professional exemption, youth rate, living-wage contract, meal/lodging deduction, service charge or higher agreed wage. Tipped mode requires lawful notice, retention, pooling and all entered hours in eligible tipped work. No bonuses, compulsory service charges, multiple pay rates, or wage deductions. If using the tip credit, eligibility, required advance notice, and lawful tip retention/pooling are confirmed. All hours entered are in that eligible tipped occupation.

Earnings statement Needs your inputs

Weekly gross including tips—

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Hourly floor—
Per workday—
Weekly gross—
Monthly average—
Yearly gross—

Employer cash before shortfall: —
Weekly tips retained: —
Employer shortfall payment: —
Total employer cash: —

Overtime uses the full regular rate before subtracting a permitted tip credit. The employer must cover a weekly tip shortfall within the selected scope. This floor scenario does not calculate pay at a higher agreed rate. Per-workday pay divides the week by the days with hours. Annual figures repeat the rounded weekly result.

Reviewed rate period: 2026-01-01 through 2027-12-31. Gross earnings before taxes or deductions. Annual figures repeat this weekly scenario; they do not combine different rate periods.

The DOES 2026 increase notice supplies these actual amounts. Current DC Code 32-1003 supplies the annual indexing and tipped rules. Verified October 2,2026.

Two 2026 periods, one week at a time

January through June 2026 uses the earlier $17.95 full minimum and $10 eligible tipped cash. July 2026 through June 2027 uses $18.40 and $10.30. Select a date within one period and enter a week entirely within it. A payroll week spanning the July change needs separate hours and rate accounting; repeating the entire week at the new floor would not reconstruct that pay statement.

DC’s tipped schedule changed after Initiative 82

Current statutory text sets tipped wages at 56% of the full minimum starting July 1,2026. It schedules 60% in 2028,65% in 2030,70% in 2032 and 75% in 2034. Older descriptions claiming the tip credit disappears in 2027 do not match this current law. The 2026 agency notice explicitly publishes $10.30, and that posted amount is used in the calculator rather than rounding individual hours from a guessed cash rate.

For July 2027 or later, enter the actual announced full floor and eligible cash floor from the District notice. Annual indexing does not disclose those future dollar amounts today. The selected category and notice must match your work date; a proposed ballot measure or news forecast is not a wage schedule. This form retains the reviewed ordinary weekly arithmetic and does not decide tip-credit eligibility.

Cash, tips and employer adjustment

With 40 eligible tipped hours and $100 retained tips at the July 2026 floor, initial employer cash is 40×$10.30=$412. The full wage requirement is $736. Cash plus tips totals $512, so the employer supplies $224 more. Final employer cash is $636 and combined gross is $736. Tips do not let the combined pay fall below the required floor.

A 45-hour ordinary week has five overtime hours. The premium uses the full $18.40 regular-rate floor before the credit. With $400 eligible retained tips, base cash is 45×$10.30=$463.50 plus a $46 overtime premium, giving $509.50 employer cash and $909.50 combined gross. A reduced cash wage is not the regular rate for the overtime multiplier.

Check the job’s separate requirements

District tip-credit rules require the prescribed notice and lawful handling of gratuities. The Code also contains occupation-specific schedules and exceptions, including specified security officers and hotel employment. This ordinary worksheet excludes those branches, compulsory service charges, bonuses and multiple regular rates. Federal coverage can add protections and must be checked separately; confirmation is a factual assumption, not a legal finding from a checkbox.

Work in Maryland or Virginia follows that workplace’s applicable law: see the Maryland minimum wage and Virginia minimum wage calculators, or West Virginia minimum wage for a job farther west. A DC residence does not automatically apply the District floor to a job across the border. Use methodology for rounding and gross-pay limits, or DOES Office of Wage-Hour Compliance for official administration.

Updated October 5, 2026 First published October 2, 2026

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