Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,650
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$11,370
20.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,986
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
$56,020
Kept after tax
$44,650
Worth in national money
$44,986
State rank
38
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Delaware pays this job a middle wage of $56,020, 38 of 51 states and about 5.61% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Delaware, this sits in the middle: 258 of 445 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Delaware costs about what the country costs, so from $56,020, take-home of $44,650 is worth roughly $44,986 in national money. The average comes to $57,330, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Delaware's $56,020 median for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors places it 38 of 51 states, about 5.61% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors ranks 258 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.
- Price parity in Delaware is near the national base, so for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors, whose median is $56,020, the adjusted figure of $44,986 differs little from $44,650 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $57,330 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,940 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $56,020 |
| Top tenth earn over | $80,710 |
| This salary | $56,020 |
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 | $44,650 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $47,192 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,578 |
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 | $52,856 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,327 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $56,020 as a midpoint for Delaware, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,940 and the ninetieth is $80,710 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Delaware the take-home figure of $44,650, from $56,020, 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 258 of 445 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $44,986 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 258.
- The Delaware median of $56,020 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,940 to $80,710. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Delaware is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $44,650 from $56,020. 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 258 of 445 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $44,986, worked from $56,020, 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 258 of 445 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $36,940, the highest tenth $80,710, 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 $44,986 in national terms.
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 $44,650 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.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($36,940) and the ninetieth ($80,710) 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 $44,986 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 $44,650 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.