Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$53,864
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$14,846
21.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,269
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
$68,710
Kept after tax
$53,864
Worth in national money
$54,269
State rank
19
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Delaware pays this job around $68,710 at the midpoint, 19 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Delaware, this sits in the middle: 167 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 $68,710, tax leaves $53,864, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $54,269 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $69,500, since top earners drag the number up.
- For licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses the Delaware median is $68,710, ranking 19 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses ranks 167 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 licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses — median $68,710 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $53,864 retained, $54,269 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $69,500 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $59,210 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $68,710 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,580 |
| This salary | $68,710 |
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 | $53,864 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $57,167 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,560 |
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 | $64,323 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,790 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $68,710 as a midpoint for Delaware, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $59,210 and the ninetieth is $77,580 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Delaware the take-home figure of $53,864, from $68,710, 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 167 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 $54,269 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 167.
- The Delaware median of $68,710 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $59,210 to $77,580. 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 $53,864 from $68,710. 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 167 of 445 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $54,269, worked from $68,710, 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 167 of 445 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $59,210 at the tenth percentile, $77,580 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 $54,269 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 $53,864 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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($59,210 to $77,580) 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 $54,269 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 $53,864 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.