Marketing Managers salary in Washington, D.C., District of Columbia

With about 9,480 Marketing Managers working in the Washington, D.C. metro, this is one of the larger concentrations of the role anywhere in the country. The median annual wage in 2024 was $176,240, roughly 14% above the national median of $154,215 and about 5% above the D.C. state figure of $168,080.

The average wage came in at $189,850, which is noticeably higher than the median. A subset of senior managers pulling well above $176,240 accounts for that gap. The spread from the 25th to the 75th percentile runs from $135,540 to $224,670, a range of nearly $90,000 within the same metro and the same occupation title. That kind of spread usually reflects real differences in scope: a marketing manager overseeing a three-person team at a mid-size nonprofit is classified the same way as a director of marketing at a federal contractor with a seven-figure budget.

The entry-level picture is also worth noting. The 10th-percentile wage was $104,280. That floor sits above what many comparable roles pay in other major metros, which reflects the D.C. market's tendency toward credentialed, policy-adjacent, and communications-heavy work rather than the consumer marketing roles that dominate in cities like Atlanta or Dallas.

The D.C. metro's premium over the national median has held for several years running. Whether that persists depends on how federal agency budgets shift and how many associations and advocacy organizations keep their headquarters inside the Beltway. For now, the data shows a market that pays above average at every point in the wage distribution we can measure.