Physician Assistants in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$98,546
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$40,804
29.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$99,287
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
$139,350
Kept after tax
$98,546
Worth in national money
$99,287
State rank
16
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for physician assistants is strong here. Delaware's middle earner gets $139,350, putting the state 16 of 51 — about 2.55% ahead of the national figure.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 445 occupations Delaware reports, physician assistants comes in at 24 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $139,350 the take-home is $98,546, which is worth about $99,287 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $143,840, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For physician assistants, Delaware sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $139,350, ranking 16 of 51 and running about 2.55% 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.
- Physician assistants ranks 24 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 physician assistants on its $139,350 median: $98,546 retained after tax becomes $99,287 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $143,840 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Physician Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $108,560 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $139,350 |
| Top tenth earn over | $175,970 |
| This salary | $139,350 |
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 | $98,546 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $106,512 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,321 |
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 | $127,695 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$14,673 |
| 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 physician assistants in Delaware earn under $139,350 and half over. The published range runs $108,560 at the tenth percentile to $175,970 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $98,546 take-home in Delaware comes from $139,350. 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 24 of 445.
- One number stands for prices across all of Delaware, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $99,287, the adjusted value of that $139,350 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 24 of 445 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for physician assistants in Delaware, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $108,560 to $175,970; 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 $98,546, from $139,350, 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 24 of 445 locally, and the state ranks 16 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Delaware, so $99,287 — the adjusted value of that $139,350 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 24 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 $143,840, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $108,560 at the tenth percentile, $175,970 at the ninetieth.
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 $99,287 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 $98,546 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.
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 $143,840. 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 ($108,560 to $175,970) 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 $99,287 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 $98,546 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.