Accountants and Auditors Average Salary in District of Columbia
$94,419 average · $95,250 median · BLS OEWS 2025
SOC Code: 13-2011What is this?
This page shows employer-reported wages for Accountants and Auditors 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. Industry choice is the dominant pay lever: the same analyst role pays substantially more in finance, tech, or energy than in education, nonprofits, or local government. Professional credentials (CPA, PHR, PMP, CFA) reliably move workers from the median toward the 75th percentile because they are contractually required for certain work, not merely decorative.
How much do Accountants and Auditors make in District of Columbia?
The average accountants and auditors salary in District of Columbia is $94,419 per year, with a median of $95,250. That works out to about $45.39 per hour on average. BLS counts roughly 7,668,610 accountants and auditors jobs in District of Columbia.
Mean and median are close, so pay is relatively concentrated around $95,250. Entry-level roles (10th percentile) report about $86,270; experienced workers at the 90th percentile report about $98,030 — a 14% 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 Business and Financial Operations Careers Are Structured
Business and financial operations specialists — analysts, accountants, HR specialists, buyers, project managers — form the professional middle layer of nearly every industry. The work is office-based and increasingly remote-friendly, which means the geographic wage gaps shown in this data are gradually being arbitraged by remote hiring in ways the survey is only beginning to reflect.
The wage tables and percentile chart on this page show how accountants and auditors 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
Industry choice is the dominant pay lever: the same analyst role pays substantially more in finance, tech, or energy than in education, nonprofits, or local government. Professional credentials (CPA, PHR, PMP, CFA) reliably move workers from the median toward the 75th percentile because they are contractually required for certain work, not merely decorative.
Entry typically requires a bachelor's degree, but the field is unusually open to career-changers because the core skills — analysis, communication, process discipline — transfer across industries. Early-career workers should weight employers by what they teach: two years in a rigorous environment moves you up this distribution faster than five in a lax one.
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.
High Demand OccupationBright Outlook
Accountants and Auditors is in high demand with strong job growth projected over the next decade.
What Do Accountants and Auditors Do?
Accountants and Auditors positions belong to the business and financial operations field. Business and financial operations specialists — analysts, accountants, HR specialists, buyers, project managers — form the professional middle layer of nearly every industry. The work is office-based and increasingly remote-friendly, which means the geographic wage gaps shown in this data are gradually being arbitraged by remote hiring in ways the survey is only beginning to reflect.
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code: 13-2011
Accountants and Auditors pay in District of Columbia
In District of Columbia, accountants and auditors report a median of $95,250 and an average of $94,419 (about $45.39/hour) across roughly 7,668,610 jobs. The local pay band runs from about $86,270 at the 10th percentile to $98,030 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.
Income reality check
The median salary for Accountants and Auditors in District of Columbia of $95,250 falls in the Comfortable band of this framework - roughly ~12% of the U.S. population and ~7% 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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Accountants And Auditors in Other States
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