Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$46,303
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$11,927
20.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,651
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
$58,230
Kept after tax
$46,303
Worth in national money
$46,651
State rank
23
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Delaware sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $58,230, ranking 23 of 50 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Against other work in Delaware, this sits in the middle: 241 of 445 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $58,230, tax leaves $46,303, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $46,651 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $61,380, since top earners drag the number up.
- Delaware occupies the middle band for education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare: a median of $58,230, ranking 23 of 50. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare ranks 241 of 445 occupations in Delaware by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Because Delaware sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare — median $58,230 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $46,303 retained, $46,651 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $61,380 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,910 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,230 |
| Top tenth earn over | $92,630 |
| This salary | $58,230 |
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 | $46,303 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,968 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,740 |
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 | $54,913 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,523 |
| 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 education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare in Delaware earn under $58,230 and half over. The published range runs $43,910 at the tenth percentile to $92,630 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Delaware the take-home figure of $46,303, from $58,230, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 241 of 445 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $46,651 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 241.
- Figures are distribution medians for education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare in Delaware, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $43,910 to $92,630; 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.
- Take-home for Delaware is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $46,303 from $58,230. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 241 of 445 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $46,651, worked from $58,230, 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 241 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 $61,380, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $43,910, the highest tenth $92,630, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $46,651 in national terms.
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, $46,303 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $61,380. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($43,910) and the ninetieth ($92,630) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
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 $46,651 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 $46,303 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.