Architectural and Civil Drafters in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$56,624
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$16,416
22.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$57,050
Delaware costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Delaware — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$73,040
Kept after tax
$56,624
Worth in national money
$57,050
State rank
10
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Delaware's middle earner gets $73,040, putting the state 10 of 50 — about 10.42% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Delaware, this sits in the middle: 159 of 445 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Delaware costs about what the country costs, so from $73,040, take-home of $56,624 is worth roughly $57,050 in national money. The average lands at $70,130, below the middle of the range.
- For architectural and civil drafters, Delaware sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $73,040, ranking 10 of 50 and running about 10.42% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Architectural and civil drafters ranks 159 of 445 occupations in Delaware by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Price parity in Delaware is near the national base, so for architectural and civil drafters, whose median is $73,040, the adjusted figure of $57,050 differs little from $56,624 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $70,130 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Architectural and Civil Drafters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,810 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $73,040 |
| Top tenth earn over | $88,020 |
| This salary | $73,040 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Delaware | $56,624 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $60,214 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,914 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $67,937 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,757 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $73,040 as a midpoint for Delaware, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,810 and the ninetieth is $88,020 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Delaware's $56,624, worked from $73,040. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 159 of 445.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $57,050 uses one figure for the whole of Delaware. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 445 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 159.
- The Delaware median of $73,040 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,810 to $88,020. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Delaware take-home of $56,624, on $73,040 for work ranking 159 of 445 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 159 of 445 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $57,050, worked from $73,040, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Delaware address, on work sitting at 159 of 445 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $70,130, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $48,810 and the top tenth $88,020, so most people doing this work in Delaware sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Delaware is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $57,050 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Delaware's own levy, $56,624 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Delaware is $70,130. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($48,810 to $88,020) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Delaware rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Delaware's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $57,050 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $56,624 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Delaware income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.