Human Resources Specialists in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$59,595
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$18,105
23.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$60,043
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
$77,700
Kept after tax
$59,595
Worth in national money
$60,043
State rank
14
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Delaware pays human resources specialists a middle wage of $77,700, ranking 14 of 51 states and sitting about 2.32% above the national middle.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 445 occupations Delaware reports figures for, this is number 140.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $77,700, tax leaves $59,595, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $60,043 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $85,230, since top earners drag the number up.
- Delaware's median for human resources specialists is $77,700, about 2.32% above the national figure and 14 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.
- In Delaware's occupational distribution, human resources specialists sits at 140 of 445 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Because Delaware sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for human resources specialists — median $77,700 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $59,595 retained, $60,043 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $85,230 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Human Resources Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $50,960 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $77,700 |
| Top tenth earn over | $132,030 |
| This salary | $77,700 |
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 | $59,595 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,492 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,294 |
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 | $72,160 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,313 |
| 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 $77,700. The published range is $50,960 up to $132,030, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Delaware the take-home figure of $59,595, from $77,700, 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 140 of 445 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $60,043, the adjusted value of that $77,700 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 140 of 445 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for human resources specialists in Delaware the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $50,960 to $132,030. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Delaware is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $59,595 from $77,700. 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 140 of 445 locally.
- This $60,043 adjusted figure, worked from $77,700, 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 140 of 445 in the state. The occupation ranks 140 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 $85,230 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 $50,960 at the bottom tenth to $132,030 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $60,043 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Delaware adds its own income tax on top — which is why $59,595 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $85,230. 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 ($50,960) and the ninetieth ($132,030) 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 $60,043 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 $59,595 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.