Correctional Officers and Jailers in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,998
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$13,883
21.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,389
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
$65,880
Kept after tax
$51,998
Worth in national money
$52,389
State rank
14
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Delaware's middle earner gets $65,880, putting the state 14 of 49 — about 11.77% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 183 among 445 occupations Delaware publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $65,880, tax leaves $51,998, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $52,389 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $63,580.
- For correctional officers and jailers, Delaware sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $65,880, ranking 14 of 49 and running about 11.77% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Position 183 of 445 in Delaware places correctional officers and jailers 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 correctional officers and jailers — median $65,880 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $51,998 retained, $52,389 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $63,580 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Correctional Officers and Jailers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,520 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $65,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,260 |
| This salary | $65,880 |
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 | $51,998 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $55,115 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,328 |
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 | $62,001 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,234 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $65,880 as a midpoint for Delaware, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $46,520 and the ninetieth is $79,260 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $51,998 take-home in Delaware comes from $65,880. 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 183 of 445.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $52,389 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 183.
- The Delaware median of $65,880 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $46,520 to $79,260. 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 $51,998, from $65,880, 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 183 of 445 locally, and the state ranks 14 of 49 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $52,389, worked from $65,880, 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 183 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 $63,580, 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 $46,520 at the bottom tenth to $79,260 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $52,389.
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, $51,998 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $63,580. 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 ($46,520 to $79,260) 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 $52,389 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 $51,998 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.