Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,120
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$13,570
21.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,505
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
$64,690
Kept after tax
$51,120
Worth in national money
$51,505
State rank
46
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Delaware. The middle earner gets $64,690. That is 46 of 51 states, and about 21.32% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 188 among 445 occupations Delaware publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $64,690, tax leaves $51,120, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $51,505 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $68,460, since top earners drag the number up.
- For environmental scientists and specialists, including health, Delaware sits in the lower band at $64,690, ranking 46 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 21.32%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 188 of 445 in Delaware places environmental scientists and specialists, including health 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 environmental scientists and specialists, including health — median $64,690 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $51,120 retained, $51,505 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $68,460 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $50,220 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,690 |
| Top tenth earn over | $106,060 |
| This salary | $64,690 |
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 | $51,120 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $54,158 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,228 |
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 | $60,908 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,114 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $64,690 as a midpoint for Delaware, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $50,220 and the ninetieth is $106,060 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Delaware the take-home figure of $51,120, from $64,690, 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 188 of 445 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $51,505, the adjusted value of that $64,690 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 188 of 445 locally.
- The Delaware median of $64,690 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $50,220 to $106,060. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Delaware is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $51,120 from $64,690. 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 188 of 445 locally.
- This $51,505 adjusted figure, worked from $64,690, 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 188 of 445 in the state. The occupation ranks 188 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 $68,460 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $50,220 at the bottom tenth to $106,060 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $51,505 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 $51,120.
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 $68,460. 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 ($50,220) and the ninetieth ($106,060) 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 $51,505 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 $51,120 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.