Community and Social Service Specialists, All Other in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,870
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$10,770
20.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,192
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
$53,640
Kept after tax
$42,870
Worth in national money
$43,192
State rank
23
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Delaware pays this job around $53,640 at the midpoint, 23 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 266 among 445 occupations Delaware publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $53,640, tax leaves $42,870, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $43,192 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $55,420, since top earners drag the number up.
- For community and social service specialists, all other the Delaware median is $53,640, ranking 23 of 49 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 266 of 445 in Delaware places community and social service specialists, all other in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Delaware sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for community and social service specialists, all other — median $53,640 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $42,870 retained, $43,192 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $55,420 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Community and Social Service Specialists, All Other
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,620 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $53,640 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,490 |
| This salary | $53,640 |
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 | $42,870 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $45,280 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,404 |
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 | $50,640 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,117 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of community and social service specialists, all other in Delaware earn under $53,640 and half over. The published range runs $35,620 at the tenth percentile to $77,490 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Delaware's $42,870, worked from $53,640. 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 266 of 445.
- Two cautions on $43,192, the adjusted value of that $53,640 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Delaware. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 266 of 445 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for community and social service specialists, all other in Delaware, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,620 to $77,490; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Delaware take-home of $42,870, on $53,640 for work ranking 266 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 266 of 445 in the state.
- This $43,192 adjusted figure, worked from $53,640, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 266 of 445 in the state. The occupation ranks 266 of 445 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $55,420 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $35,620 and the top tenth $77,490 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $43,192 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Delaware then takes its own share, leaving $42,870.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $55,420. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($35,620) and the ninetieth ($77,490) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
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 $43,192 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 $42,870 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.