Cooks, Short Order in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,545
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$6,955
18.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,782
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
$38,500
Kept after tax
$31,545
Worth in national money
$31,782
State rank
14
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Delaware pays cooks, short order a middle wage of $38,500, ranking 14 of 49 states and sitting about 7.3% above the national middle.
- Against 445 occupations Delaware publishes, cooks, short order lands at 372. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $38,500, tax leaves $31,545, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $31,782 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $38,960, since top earners drag the number up.
- Delaware's median for cooks, short order is $38,500, about 7.3% above the national figure and 14 of 49 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within Delaware, this work ranks 372 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, short order — median $38,500 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $31,545 retained, $31,782 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $38,960 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Cooks, Short Order
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,040 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,500 |
| Top tenth earn over | $42,810 |
| This salary | $38,500 |
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 | $31,545 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,115 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,295 |
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 | $36,546 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,776 |
| 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, short order in Delaware earn under $38,500 and half over. The published range runs $33,040 at the tenth percentile to $42,810 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $31,545 take-home in Delaware comes from $38,500. 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 372 of 445.
- One number stands for prices across all of Delaware, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $31,782, the adjusted value of that $38,500 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 372 of 445 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for cooks, short order in Delaware, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $33,040 to $42,810; 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 $31,545, from $38,500, 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 372 of 445 locally, and the state ranks 14 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Delaware, so $31,782 — the adjusted value of that $38,500 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 372 of 445 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $33,040 at the tenth percentile, $42,810 at the ninetieth.
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 $31,782 in national terms.
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 $31,545 of this wage survives to your account.
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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($33,040 to $42,810) 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 $31,782 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 $31,545 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.