Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,957
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$11,473
20.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,295
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
$56,430
Kept after tax
$44,957
Worth in national money
$45,295
State rank
25
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Delaware pays payroll and timekeeping clerks around $56,430 at the midpoint, 25 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Delaware, this sits in the middle: 256 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 $56,430, tax leaves $44,957, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $45,295 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $61,460, since top earners drag the number up.
- For payroll and timekeeping clerks the Delaware median is $56,430, ranking 25 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.
- Payroll and timekeeping clerks ranks 256 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 payroll and timekeeping clerks — median $56,430 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $44,957 retained, $45,295 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $61,460 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,680 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $56,430 |
| Top tenth earn over | $86,620 |
| This salary | $56,430 |
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 | $44,957 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $47,522 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,608 |
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 | $53,238 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,364 |
| 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 payroll and timekeeping clerks in Delaware earn under $56,430 and half over. The published range runs $38,680 at the tenth percentile to $86,620 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $44,957 take-home in Delaware comes from $56,430. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 256 of 445.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $45,295 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 256.
- Figures are distribution medians for payroll and timekeeping clerks in Delaware, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $38,680 to $86,620; 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.
- Retained pay of $44,957, from $56,430, assumes a single Delaware filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 256 of 445 locally, and the state ranks 25 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $45,295, worked from $56,430, 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 256 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 $61,460 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $38,680, the highest tenth $86,620, 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 $45,295 in national terms.
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 $44,957.
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 $61,460. 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 ($38,680) and the ninetieth ($86,620) 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 $45,295 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 $44,957 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.