Mechanical Drafters in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$45,465
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$11,645
20.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,807
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
$57,110
Kept after tax
$45,465
Worth in national money
$45,807
State rank
44
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for mechanical drafters is on the low side in Delaware. The middle earner gets $57,110. That is 44 of 47 states, and about 20.18% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Mechanical drafters ranks 252 among 445 occupations Delaware publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $57,110, tax leaves $45,465, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $45,807 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $61,690, since top earners drag the number up.
- For mechanical drafters, Delaware sits in the lower band at $57,110, ranking 44 of 47 and trailing the national median by about 20.18%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 252 of 445 in Delaware places mechanical drafters 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 mechanical drafters — median $57,110 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $45,465 retained, $45,807 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $61,690 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Mechanical Drafters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,000 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,110 |
| Top tenth earn over | $84,750 |
| This salary | $57,110 |
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 | $45,465 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,068 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,658 |
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 | $53,871 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,424 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $57,110 as a midpoint for Delaware, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $49,000 and the ninetieth is $84,750 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Delaware the take-home figure of $45,465, from $57,110, 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 252 of 445 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $45,807, the adjusted value of that $57,110 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 252 of 445 locally.
- The Delaware median of $57,110 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $49,000 to $84,750. 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 $45,465 from $57,110. 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 252 of 445 locally.
- This $45,807 adjusted figure, worked from $57,110, 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 252 of 445 in the state. The occupation ranks 252 of 445 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $61,690, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $49,000 and the top tenth $84,750, so most people doing this work in Delaware sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $45,807 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 $45,465 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 47 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $61,690. 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 ($49,000 to $84,750) 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 $45,807 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 $45,465 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.