Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$41,478
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$10,302
19.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,790
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
$51,780
Kept after tax
$41,478
Worth in national money
$41,790
State rank
16
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Delaware pays this job a middle wage of $51,780, ranking 16 of 51 states and sitting about 2.19% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Delaware, this sits in the middle: 275 of 445 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $51,780 the take-home is $41,478, which is worth about $41,790 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $53,880, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Delaware's median for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks is $51,780, about 2.19% above the national figure and 16 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks ranks 275 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.
- Delaware's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks on its $51,780 median: $41,478 retained after tax becomes $41,790 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $53,880 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,130 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,780 |
| Top tenth earn over | $71,410 |
| This salary | $51,780 |
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 | $41,478 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,785 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,268 |
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 | $48,909 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,952 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $51,780 as a midpoint for Delaware, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $38,130 and the ninetieth is $71,410 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $41,478 take-home in Delaware comes from $51,780. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 275 of 445.
- One number stands for prices across all of Delaware, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $41,790, the adjusted value of that $51,780 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 275 of 445 in the state.
- The Delaware median of $51,780 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $38,130 to $71,410. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $41,478, from $51,780, assumes a single Delaware filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 275 of 445 locally, and the state ranks 16 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Delaware, so $41,790 — the adjusted value of that $51,780 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 275 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 $53,880, 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 $38,130 and the top tenth $71,410, so most people doing this work in Delaware sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $41,790.
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, $41,478 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $53,880. 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 ($38,130 to $71,410) 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 $41,790 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 $41,478 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.