Pharmacists in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$106,900
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$45,980
30.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$107,705
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
$152,880
Kept after tax
$106,900
Worth in national money
$107,705
State rank
9
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for pharmacists is strong here. Delaware's middle earner gets $152,880, putting the state 9 of 51 — about 8.49% ahead of the national figure.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 445 occupations Delaware reports, pharmacists comes in at 18 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $152,880 the take-home is $106,900, which is worth about $107,705 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is lower, $147,290, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- For pharmacists, Delaware sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $152,880, ranking 9 of 51 and running about 8.49% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Pharmacists ranks 18 of 445 occupations by median in Delaware, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Delaware's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for pharmacists on its $152,880 median: $106,900 retained after tax becomes $107,705 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $147,290 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Pharmacists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $103,170 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $152,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $178,760 |
| This salary | $152,880 |
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 | $106,900 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $115,759 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$11,420 |
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 | $139,919 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$16,236 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $152,880 as a midpoint for Delaware, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $103,170 and the ninetieth is $178,760 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $106,900 take-home in Delaware comes from $152,880. 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 18 of 445.
- Two cautions on $107,705, the adjusted value of that $152,880 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 18 of 445 locally.
- The Delaware median of $152,880 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $103,170 to $178,760. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $106,900, from $152,880, 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 18 of 445 locally, and the state ranks 9 of 51 for it.
- This $107,705 adjusted figure, worked from $152,880, 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 18 of 445 in the state. The occupation ranks 18 of 445 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $147,290, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $103,170 and the top tenth $178,760, so most people doing this work in Delaware sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $107,705.
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 $106,900.
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 $147,290. 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 ($103,170 to $178,760) 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 $107,705 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 $106,900 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.