Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,593
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$5,287
16.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$26,793
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
$31,880
Kept after tax
$26,593
Worth in national money
$26,793
State rank
17
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Delaware pays this job a middle wage of $31,880, ranking 17 of 51 states and sitting about 6.18% above the national middle.
- Measured against other jobs in Delaware, this one sits low: 435 of 445 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $31,880 the take-home is $26,593, which is worth about $26,793 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $34,290, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Delaware's median for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers is $31,880, about 6.18% above the national figure and 17 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers occupies position 435 of 445 in Delaware's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Delaware's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers on its $31,880 median: $26,593 retained after tax becomes $26,793 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $34,290 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,200 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $31,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $38,450 |
| This salary | $31,880 |
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 | $26,593 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,796 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,810 |
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 | $30,383 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,189 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Delaware earn less than $31,880. The published range is $31,200 up to $38,450, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $26,593 take-home in Delaware comes from $31,880. 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 435 of 445.
- One number stands for prices across all of Delaware, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $26,793, the adjusted value of that $31,880 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 435 of 445 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers in Delaware the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $31,200 to $38,450. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $26,593, from $31,880, 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 435 of 445 locally, and the state ranks 17 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Delaware, so $26,793 — the adjusted value of that $31,880 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 435 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 $34,290 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $31,200 at the bottom tenth to $38,450 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 $26,793 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 $26,593.
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 $34,290. 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 $38,450) 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 $26,793 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 $26,593 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.