Cooks, Fast Food in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,563
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$5,277
16.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$26,763
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
$31,840
Kept after tax
$26,563
Worth in national money
$26,763
State rank
21
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Delaware pays cooks, fast food around $31,840 at the midpoint, 21 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 445 occupations Delaware publishes, cooks, fast food lands at 436. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $31,840, tax leaves $26,563, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $26,763 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $35,780, since top earners drag the number up.
- For cooks, fast food the Delaware median is $31,840, ranking 21 of 51 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.
- Within Delaware, this work ranks 436 of 445 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Delaware sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for cooks, fast food — median $31,840 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $26,563 retained, $26,763 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $35,780 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Cooks, Fast Food
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,200 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $31,840 |
| Top tenth earn over | $48,870 |
| This salary | $31,840 |
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 | $26,563 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,763 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,807 |
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 | $30,346 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,186 |
| 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 cooks, fast food in Delaware earn under $31,840 and half over. The published range runs $31,200 at the tenth percentile to $48,870 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $26,563 take-home in Delaware comes from $31,840. 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 436 of 445.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $26,763 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 436.
- Figures are distribution medians for cooks, fast food in Delaware, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,200 to $48,870; 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.
- Retained pay of $26,563, from $31,840, 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 436 of 445 locally, and the state ranks 21 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $26,763, worked from $31,840, 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 436 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 $35,780, 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?
The range here is narrow. From $31,200 at the bottom tenth to $48,870 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Delaware sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $26,763 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 $26,563.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 $35,780. 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 ($31,200 to $48,870) 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 $26,763 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 $26,563 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.