The District of Columbia
Labor Law Guide

Minimum wage is the lowest hourly pay rate that employers are legally obligated to pay nonexempt employees. D.C. minimum wage must be paid for all hours worked in the District as follows:

$17.50 per hour for most employees in 2024

Tipped minimum wage is the lowest hourly pay rate employers are legally obligated to pay employees who earn a significant portion of their income through tips. 

D.C. tipped minimum wage is $10.00 (increasing to $14.00 on July 1, 2025)

D.C is in the process of phasing out their tip credit. Starting on July 1, 2027, tipped employees must receive the full minimum wage.

Overtime
The District of Columbia overtime requirements mirror the FLSA. They require employers to pay nonexempt employees overtime pay of at least 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek. 

Exceptions
Some employees are exempt from overtime pay under D.C. law. These include the following categories of workers:

• Airline employees

• Automobile dealership employees

• Commissioned employees

• Railroad employees

• Seamen

• Live-in Domestic Workers

• Companions for the Aged and Infirm

Each of these exemptions has specific requirements that must be met in order for it to apply. Please consult the D.C. Office of the Attorney General’s website for detailed information on each exemption.

Split Shift Wages
Washington, D.C. requires employers to pay split shift wages when a worker works a split shift. For example, if an employee works an 8 AM to noon shift in the morning, and then comes back to work for a 5 PM to 9 PM shift that same evening, a split shift wage is triggered. However, a shift that is separated by a meal break of up to one hour is not considered as split shift.

For each day that an employee works a split shift, the employer must pay the employee one additional hour at the minimum wage.

Washington, D.C. does not require employers to provide meal and rest breaks. However, if a FLSA-covered employer chooses to offer short breaks (usually between 5 and 20 minutes in length), federal law requires that they be paid. Longer meal breaks (30 minutes or longer) are typically unpaid and do not count as time worked.

Vacation leave
Washington, D.C. law does not require private employers to provide paid or unpaid vacation leave. If an employer wants to offer their employees paid or unpaid vacation leave, it is the employer’s choice and would be governed by the employer’s policies or the employment contract.

Paid Sick Leave
Employers in Washington, D.C. are required to provide paid sick leave to their workers. The amount of paid sick leave depends on the employer’s size:

• 24 or fewer employees: employees must accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 87 hours worked, up to a cap of 3 days per year;

• 25 to 99 employees:  employees must accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 43 hours worked, up to a cap of 5 days per year;

• 100 or more employees:  employees must accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 37 hours worked, up to a cap of 7 days per year.

D.C. employees may begin using their accrued paid sick leave after 90 days of employment.

Universal Paid Leave
D.C. employees are also entitled to take paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child, or for a serious health condition of the employee or a family member, and provide employees with a notice of their rights at the time of hire. Washington, D.C.’s Paid Leave Act provide for the following amounts of paid leave:

• 2 weeks to care for a pregnancy (prenatal leave);

• 12 weeks to bond with a new child (parental leave);

• 12 weeks to care for a family member with a serious health condition (family leave); and

• 12 weeks to care for your own serious health condition (medical leave). 

Holidays
Washington, D.C. doesn’t require private employers to provide paid or unpaid holiday leave. If an employer wants to offer paid or unpaid holiday leave to their employees, it is up to the individual employer, and would be governed by company’s policy or the employee’s contract.

Washington, D.C. law restricts the types of work and hours of work of minors under the age of 18. A summary of key D.C. child labor laws follows:

Minors under 14 are only allowed to do the following jobs:

• Housework performed outside school hours in the minor’s own home;

• Agricultural work performed outside school hours in connection with the minor’s home and directly for their parents or guardians; and

• Newspaper delivery (10 years and older only).

Minors under 16 years of age cannot work:

• Before 7 AM or after 7 PM (This is extended to 9 PM from June 1 through Labor Day)

• In any occupation that involves the operation, oiling, wiping or cleaning of any machinery operated by power other than hand or foot power 

Minors age 16-17 cannot work:

• Before 6 AM or after 10 PM

• In any occupation involving operating any freight or nonautomatic elevator, or in any quarry, tunnel or excavation

Minors under 18 years of age are restricted to the following hours of work:

• Cannot work more than 6 consecutive days per week

• Cannot work more than 48 hours per week

• Cannot work more than 8 hours per day

Hiring
The D.C. Wage Transparency Act requires District of Columbia employers to include a minimum and maximum salary range or hourly pay information in all job postings and inform candidates about health benefits before the first interview. It also bans employers from asking candidates to provide their wage or salary history or screening prospective employees based on their wage history.  

Additionally, D.C. has a “Ban the Box” law that applies to all D.C. employers with more than 10 District employees. The ban the box law prohibits covered employers from inquiring about or requiring an applicant to disclose an arrest or criminal accusation. It also prohibits employers from inquiring about a criminal conviction at any point prior to making a conditional offer of employment. 

After making the conditional offer of employment, the employer may only ask about criminal convictions (not arrests) and may only withdraw the offer or take some other adverse action after considering the specific duties and responsibilities of the job and the relevance of the criminal offense at issue to the candidate’s fitness for the job, including by considering how recent the conviction was, how old the applicant was when the offense occurred, and the frequency or seriousness of the criminal offense.

Firing
The District of Columbia is an “at will” employment District, meaning that employers and employees can end the employment relationship at any time, for any reason, without notice. However, employers may not terminate employment for an unlawful reason including but not limited to discrimination based on race, national origin, disability, age, gender, or genetic information; retaliation for reporting illegal or unsafe work practices; or refusing to conduct illegal activities. 

Final paychecks must be provided to terminated employees on the next working day, and to employees who resign on the next regularly scheduled pay date or within 7 days (whichever is earlier).