- The middle half earn between $20.80 and $28.41 an hour.
- The District of Columbia ranks 17th of the 50 states and DC for median pay in this trade.
- The District of Columbia pays more than both neighboring states.
- BLS counts about 2,090 construction laborers on payrolls in the District of Columbia.
- At the state median wage, a contracting business needs to bill about $112.82 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
Construction Laborer pay in the District of Columbia, bottom to top
Construction laborers do the site work on a crew: demolition, digging, hauling and cleanup, and helping the trades. Separate helper categories for specific trades are not included.
| Pay level | Hourly | Yearly | National hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $17.88 | $37,190 | $16.87 |
| 25th percentile | $20.80 | $43,260 | $18.57 |
| Median | $24.05 | $50,020 | $22.66 |
| 75th percentile | $28.41 | $59,090 | $28.72 |
| 90th percentile | $34.77 | $72,320 | $37.54 |
| Average (mean) | $25.11 | $52,220 | $25.02 |
Pay is bunched up in the District of Columbia. The top tenth earn $34.77 an hour or more, about 1.9 times the $17.88 at the bottom tenth. Nationally that gap is 2.2 times, so the step from the bottom of the scale to the top is shorter here than in most places.
The floor is higher than nationally ($17.88 against $16.87) but the ceiling is lower ($34.77 against $37.54), which squeezes pay toward the middle.
The average, $25.11, is close to the median, so pay sits fairly evenly around the middle.
How the District of Columbia compares with other states
Over a full year, the the District of Columbia median of $50,020 is $2,900 more than the national $47,120.
In the state ranking, the District of Columbia sits 17th, between Indiana ($24.07) and New Hampshire ($24.03). The range runs from $17.74 in Alabama to $37.07 in Hawaii.
The District of Columbia pays construction laborers more than any of its neighboring states, Maryland and Virginia. Someone working near the border can earn more by taking work on this side of it.
These are wages as paid, not adjusted for what it costs to live in the District of Columbia. Rent, home prices and taxes decide how far a higher wage goes.
How many construction laborers work in the District of Columbia
The District of Columbia has one of the smaller workforces in the trade: 2,090 construction laborers on payrolls, 0.2% of the 1,096,780 nationwide.
It is a smaller part of local jobs than in most of the country, at 3.0 per 1,000 jobs, 0.42 times the national share.
What a contracting business in the District of Columbia should charge
Higher wages in the District of Columbia go straight into the price. Take a contracting business in the District of Columbia paying the state median of $24.05 and run it through the labor rate calculator with its starting numbers (40-hour weeks, 10 paid days off, 2 unbilled hours a day, 7.65% payroll taxes, $90,000 a year of overhead and 15% profit).
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Paid hours | 40 × 52 | 2,080 |
| Hours at work | 2,080 − 10 days × 8 | 2,000 |
| Billable hours | 2,000 × 6 ÷ 8 | 1,500 |
| Labor cost | $24.05 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $53,851 |
| Break-even rate | ($53,851 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $95.90 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $95.90 ÷ 0.85 | $112.82 |
That is $112.82 per billable hour, 4.7 times the wage, and $2.44 more than the $110.38 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $28.41 in the District of Columbia, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $120.48.
A cheaper crew saves less than it seems: at the 25th percentile wage of $20.80, the rate only drops to $107.12.
At this wage, overhead is most of the price: $60 of every billed hour goes to it before anyone is paid. Spreading the same overhead over more billable hours, with a second person or less drive time, brings the rate down fastest.
Run it with your own numbers in the labor rate calculator. It is free and shows every step.
Where these numbers come from
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
The figures are the BLS state estimates for SOC 47-2061, construction laborers, across all industries, read straight from the May 2025 state data file. They cover wage and salary workers, not the self-employed. Where BLS did not publish a figure, this page leaves it out.
All states in one table: construction laborer salary by state.