Public Safety Telecommunicators in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,496
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$10,644
20.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,815
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
$53,140
Kept after tax
$42,496
Worth in national money
$42,815
State rank
27
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Delaware is 27 of 51 states for this job, with a middle wage of $53,140. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 445 occupations Delaware reports figures for, this is number 270.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $53,140 the take-home is $42,496, which is worth about $42,815 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $58,710, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Delaware ranks 27 of 51 for public safety telecommunicators at $53,140. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- In Delaware's occupational distribution, public safety telecommunicators sits at 270 of 445 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Delaware's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for public safety telecommunicators on its $53,140 median: $42,496 retained after tax becomes $42,815 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $58,710 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Public Safety Telecommunicators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,150 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $53,140 |
| Top tenth earn over | $82,610 |
| This salary | $53,140 |
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 | $42,496 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $44,878 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,367 |
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 | $50,175 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,072 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $53,140 as a midpoint for Delaware, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,150 and the ninetieth is $82,610 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Delaware's $42,496, worked from $53,140. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 270 of 445.
- One number stands for prices across all of Delaware, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $42,815, the adjusted value of that $53,140 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 270 of 445 in the state.
- The Delaware median of $53,140 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,150 to $82,610. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Delaware take-home of $42,496, on $53,140 for work ranking 270 of 445 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 270 of 445 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Delaware, so $42,815 — the adjusted value of that $53,140 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 270 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 $58,710 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $47,150 at the tenth percentile, $82,610 at the ninetieth.
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 $42,815.
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 $42,496 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 $58,710. 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 ($47,150 to $82,610) 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 $42,815 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 $42,496 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.