Bartenders Average Salary in District of Columbia
$59,210 average · $59,210 median · BLS OEWS 2025
SOC Code: 35-3011What is this?
This page shows employer-reported wages for Bartenders in District of Columbia, drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey — median and mean pay, the full percentile distribution, and the industries that employ this occupation locally. For tipped roles, venue economics dominate — the same skills earn multiples more at a high-volume, high-check establishment. For kitchen roles, the ladder from line cook through sous chef to kitchen manager is the pay path, and it is climbed by demonstrated reliability more than credentials. Hotel and institutional food service generally out-pays restaurants at equivalent levels and adds benefits.
How much do Bartenders make in District of Columbia?
The average bartenders salary in District of Columbia is $59,210 per year. That works out to about $28.47 per hour on average. BLS counts roughly 5,760 bartenders jobs in District of Columbia.
Mean and median are close, so pay is relatively concentrated around $59,210. Entry-level roles (10th percentile) report about $59,210; experienced workers at the 90th percentile report about $59,210 — a 0% spread from bottom to top. Figures are employer-reported wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program — not self-reported survey averages — so they are the right baseline for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
How Food Preparation and Serving Careers Are Structured
Food service is the largest low-wage occupational group in the country, and also one where the published data most understates true variation: tipped earnings are inconsistently captured, so wages for servers and bartenders in busy, high-priced markets can run far above the recorded figures, while quiet-market wages match them.
The wage tables and percentile chart on this page show how bartenders pay is distributed in District of Columbia specifically — and because state-level wages for the same occupation routinely differ by 30% or more, the local figures here are the ones that matter for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
What Moves Pay in This Field
For tipped roles, venue economics dominate — the same skills earn multiples more at a high-volume, high-check establishment. For kitchen roles, the ladder from line cook through sous chef to kitchen manager is the pay path, and it is climbed by demonstrated reliability more than credentials. Hotel and institutional food service generally out-pays restaurants at equivalent levels and adds benefits.
Entry is immediate and the skills are learned working. The realistic financial trajectories are: into supervision (the first-line supervisor premium over crew wages is visible and substantial in this data), into institutional settings with benefits, or out — food service experience transfers credibly into sales, customer success, and operations roles with stronger distributions.
New to reading wage distributions? Our guide to salary percentiles explains how to place yourself on the chart above, and the negotiation playbook shows how to use these numbers in an actual conversation.
What Do Bartenders Do?
Bartenders positions belong to the food preparation and serving field. Food service is the largest low-wage occupational group in the country, and also one where the published data most understates true variation: tipped earnings are inconsistently captured, so wages for servers and bartenders in busy, high-priced markets can run far above the recorded figures, while quiet-market wages match them.
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code: 35-3011
Bartenders pay in District of Columbia
In District of Columbia, bartenders report a median of $59,210 (about $28.47/hour) across roughly 5,760 jobs. The local pay band runs from about $59,210 at the 10th percentile to $59,210 at the 90th.
Compared with the national distribution, local industry mix and cost of living are the main reasons District of Columbia wages for this occupation sit where they do — toggle Regional Price Parity on this page to see purchasing-power-adjusted pay.
What your paycheck is really worth in District of Columbia
Prices in District of Columbia run 10% above the national average (RPP 109.9). So a nominal salary of $59,210 has the buying power of about $53,876 in national terms.
District of Columbia vs. United States for Bartenders
The median bartenders salary in District of Columbia is $59,210, which is +43.4% above the national median of $41,300 (mean pay is +44.5% above the U.S. mean of $40,983). Among 51 states and D.C. with OEWS data, District of Columbia ranks #4 by median wage for this occupation (top tier). District of Columbia accounts for about 0.1% of U.S. bartenders employment in the latest OEWS release.
See every state ranked for this occupation on the best-paying states page, or compare purchasing power on real wages.
Income reality check
The median salary for Bartenders in District of Columbia of $59,210 falls in the Middle class band of this framework - roughly ~10% of the U.S. population and ~10% of the global population sit in this band.
Illustrative relative standing for education only - this ladder is a simplified framework, not an official Census, BLS, or World Bank statistical series. Salary figures on Wage Atlas come from official BLS OEWS data.
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Occupation Report Card
Top Industries for Bartenders
| $42,028 | $34,909 | $20 | 2,089,190 | |
| $37,633 | $32,908 | $18 | 99,320 |
Related Occupations
SOC: 49-9071 • 90% match | $53,855 | $53,780 | $26 | 8,336,660 |
SOC: 43-4051 • 87% match | $46,601 | $46,590 | $22 | 13,746,580 |
SOC: 43-9061 • 94% match | $46,270 | $46,420 | $22 | 14,034,620 |
SOC: 35-3031 • 82% match | $40,070 | $40,060 | $19 | 13,138,520 |
| Find Waiters and Waitresses Jobs | ||||
| $33,202 | $33,180 | $16 | 15,770,510 | |
SOC: 35-3023 • 83% match | $32,226 | $31,790 | $15 | 19,781,110 |
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Bartenders in Other States
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Viewing: Bartenders (SOC: 35-3011)