Construction Laborers in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,818
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$8,732
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,095
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
$45,550
Kept after tax
$36,818
Worth in national money
$37,095
State rank
36
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for construction laborers is on the low side in Delaware. The middle earner gets $45,550. That is 36 of 51 states, and about 3.33% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Construction laborers ranks 330 among 445 occupations Delaware publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $45,550, tax leaves $36,818, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $37,095 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $48,020, since top earners drag the number up.
- For construction laborers, Delaware sits in the lower band at $45,550, ranking 36 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 3.33%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 330 of 445 in Delaware places construction laborers 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 construction laborers — median $45,550 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $36,818 retained, $37,095 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $48,020 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Construction Laborers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,240 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $45,550 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,730 |
| This salary | $45,550 |
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 | $36,818 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,779 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,811 |
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 | $43,109 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,400 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $45,550 as a midpoint for Delaware, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $33,240 and the ninetieth is $63,730 — 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 $36,818, worked from $45,550. 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 330 of 445.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $37,095 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 330.
- The Delaware median of $45,550 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $33,240 to $63,730. 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 $36,818, on $45,550 for work ranking 330 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 330 of 445 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $37,095, worked from $45,550, 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 330 of 445 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $48,020, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $33,240 at the tenth percentile, $63,730 at the ninetieth.
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 $37,095.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Delaware adds its own income tax on top — which is why $36,818 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $48,020. 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 ($33,240 to $63,730) 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 $37,095 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 $36,818 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.