Crane and Tower Operators in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,747
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$12,413
20.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,106
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
$60,160
Kept after tax
$47,747
Worth in national money
$48,106
State rank
42
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for crane and tower operators is on the low side in Delaware. The middle earner gets $60,160. That is 42 of 50 states, and about 11.63% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Crane and tower operators ranks 222 among 445 occupations Delaware publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $60,160, tax leaves $47,747, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $48,106 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $62,330, since top earners drag the number up.
- For crane and tower operators, Delaware sits in the lower band at $60,160, ranking 42 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 11.63%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 222 of 445 in Delaware places crane and tower operators 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 crane and tower operators — median $60,160 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $47,747 retained, $48,106 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $62,330 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Crane and Tower Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $53,940 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $60,160 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,730 |
| This salary | $60,160 |
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 | $47,747 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $50,519 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,881 |
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 | $56,710 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,694 |
| 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 crane and tower operators in Delaware earn under $60,160 and half over. The published range runs $53,940 at the tenth percentile to $77,730 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $47,747 take-home in Delaware comes from $60,160. 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 222 of 445.
- Two cautions on $48,106, the adjusted value of that $60,160 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 222 of 445 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for crane and tower operators in Delaware, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $53,940 to $77,730; 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 $47,747, from $60,160, 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 222 of 445 locally, and the state ranks 42 of 50 for it.
- This $48,106 adjusted figure, worked from $60,160, 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 222 of 445 in the state. The occupation ranks 222 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 $62,330 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $53,940 at the tenth percentile, $77,730 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 $48,106 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 $47,747.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 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 $62,330. 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 ($53,940 to $77,730) 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 $48,106 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 $47,747 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.