- The middle half earn between $18.19 and $20.06 an hour.
- The District of Columbia ranks 12th 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 16,400 janitors on payrolls in the District of Columbia.
- At the state median wage, a commercial cleaning company needs to bill about $103.11 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
Janitor pay in the District of Columbia, bottom to top
BLS counts janitors and cleaners together, outside of maids and housekeeping. Office cleaning crews and school custodians are in this group.
| Pay level | Hourly | Yearly | National hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $17.96 | $37,350 | $13.77 |
| 25th percentile | $18.19 | $37,840 | $15.50 |
| Median | $18.52 | $38,520 | $17.71 |
| 75th percentile | $20.06 | $41,720 | $21.18 |
| 90th percentile | $22.34 | $46,460 | $24.17 |
| Average (mean) | $19.54 | $40,640 | $18.64 |
Pay is bunched up in the District of Columbia. The top tenth earn $22.34 an hour or more, about 1.2 times the $17.96 at the bottom tenth. Nationally that gap is 1.8 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 ($17.96 against $13.77) but the ceiling is lower ($22.34 against $24.17), which squeezes pay toward the middle.
The average, $19.54, 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 gap to the national median is small: $38,520 in the District of Columbia against $36,840 nationally, $1,680 more.
In the state ranking, the District of Columbia sits 12th, between Colorado ($18.56) and Nevada ($18.47). The range runs from $13.64 in Mississippi to $21.91 in Massachusetts.
The District of Columbia pays janitors 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.
How many janitors work in the District of Columbia
About 16,400 janitors work on payrolls in the District of Columbia, 0.7% of the 2,209,760 nationwide, the 35th largest count among the states.
The trade is a bigger part of the local job market than it is nationally: 23.4 of every 1,000 jobs in the District of Columbia, 1.6 times the national share.
What a commercial cleaning company in the District of Columbia should charge
Say you run a commercial cleaning company in the District of Columbia and pay the state median of $18.52 an hour. Here is the labor rate calculator's math on 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 | $18.52 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $41,469 |
| Break-even rate | ($41,469 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $87.65 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $87.65 ÷ 0.85 | $103.11 |
That is $103.11 per billable hour, 5.6 times the wage, and $1.42 more than the $101.69 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $20.06 in the District of Columbia, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $105.82.
A cheaper crew saves less than it seems: at the 25th percentile wage of $18.19, the rate only drops to $102.53.
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.
Working as a janitor in the District of Columbia
- Running the business. Quotes, invoices, booking and your website in one place: how cleaning companies run on Koira.
- Getting found. The free Koira report checks how your business shows up in search and on maps against shops near you.
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 37-2011, janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners, 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: janitor salary by state.