Physical Therapist Assistants in Delaware

A stethoscope and folded scrubs in a sunlit clinical workspace.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$57,625

after federal, FICA and Delaware tax

Tax takes

$16,985

22.8% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$58,059

Delaware costs less than average

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

$74,610

Kept after tax

$57,625

Worth in national money

$58,059

State rank

9

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • This is a good state for the work. Delaware pays physical therapist assistants a middle wage of $74,610, ranking 9 of 51 states and sitting about 9.11% above the national middle.
  • Ordinary, locally speaking. Physical therapist assistants ranks 153 among 445 occupations Delaware publishes pay for.
  • Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $74,610, tax leaves $57,625, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $58,059 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $71,070.
  • Delaware's median for physical therapist assistants is $74,610, about 9.11% above the national figure and 9 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.
  • Position 153 of 445 in Delaware places physical therapist assistants 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 physical therapist assistants — median $74,610 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $57,625 retained, $58,059 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $71,070 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Physical Therapist Assistants

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$51,750
Half earn under$74,610
Top tenth earn over$83,510
This salary$74,610

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

Compare with
+$3,693take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Delaware$57,625
Take-home in Texas$61,318
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$5,042

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

Moving to
$0now · $74,610$67,645
$67,645in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$69,360
You could take a cut of−$6,965
Prices in Texas97 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 $74,610. The published range is $51,750 up to $83,510, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • In Delaware the take-home figure of $57,625, from $74,610, 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 153 of 445 occupations here.
  • Two cautions on $58,059, the adjusted value of that $74,610 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 153 of 445 locally.
  • Reported values are medians; for physical therapist assistants in Delaware the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $51,750 to $83,510. 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 $57,625 from $74,610. 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 153 of 445 locally.
  • This $58,059 adjusted figure, worked from $74,610, 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 153 of 445 in the state. The occupation ranks 153 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 $71,070, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

The range here is narrow. From $51,750 at the bottom tenth to $83,510 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

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 $58,059.

Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?

Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Delaware's own levy, $57,625 remains.

Can I compare this job across every state?

Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.

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 $71,070. 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 ($51,750 to $83,510) 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 $58,059 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 $57,625 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.