Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,627
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$6,983
18.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,865
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
$38,610
Kept after tax
$31,627
Worth in national money
$31,865
State rank
15
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Delaware is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $38,610, which ranks 15 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 1.21% above the national middle.
- Against 445 occupations Delaware publishes, this job lands at 369. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- No great distortion either way. Delaware costs about what the country costs, so from $38,610, take-home of $31,627 is worth roughly $31,865 in national money. The average comes to $43,270, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Delaware ranks 15 of 51 states publishing a median for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers, at $38,610 — about 1.21% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Within Delaware, this work ranks 369 of 445 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Price parity in Delaware is near the national base, so for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers, whose median is $38,610, the adjusted figure of $31,865 differs little from $31,627 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $43,270 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,680 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,610 |
| Top tenth earn over | $57,930 |
| This salary | $38,610 |
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
| Take-home in Delaware | $31,627 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,203 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,303 |
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 | $36,649 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,785 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $38,610 as a midpoint for Delaware, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $34,680 and the ninetieth is $57,930 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $31,627 take-home in Delaware comes from $38,610. 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 369 of 445.
- Two cautions on $31,865, the adjusted value of that $38,610 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 369 of 445 locally.
- The Delaware median of $38,610 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $34,680 to $57,930. 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 $31,627, from $38,610, 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 369 of 445 locally, and the state ranks 15 of 51 for it.
- This $31,865 adjusted figure, worked from $38,610, 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 369 of 445 in the state. The occupation ranks 369 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 $43,270 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $34,680 and the top tenth $57,930, 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 $31,865.
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 $31,627 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 $43,270. 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 ($34,680 to $57,930) 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 $31,865 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 $31,627 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.