Median pay · Delaware
$38,500A year, or $19 an hour.| Percentile | Annual | Hourly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile1 in 10 earn less | $36,800 | $18 |
| 25th percentile | $36,800 | $18 |
| MedianHalf earn more, half less | $38,500 | $19 |
| 75th percentile | $45,440 | $22 |
| 90th percentile1 in 10 earn more | $51,710 | $25 |
| MeanAll pay divided by all jobs | $41,900 | $20 |
Wage survey · BLS May 2025
How we got this
- Median wage in DelawareBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$38,500
- Median hourly wagePublished separately by BLS, not divided out of the annual figure.$18.51
- Take-home after federal, state and FICA tax$2,638 a month at an effective rate of 17.8%.$31,655 a year
- Worth at national average pricesPrices in Delaware sit at 99.8 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$38,574
- Against the national medianThe national median is $43,220.10.9% below
- Jobs countedA concentration of 0.58 against the nation's 1.00.680
What we assumed
- Wages are BLS OEWS survey estimates for May 2025, not job postings or offers.
- OEWS surveys wage and salary workers. The self-employed and business owners are outside it.
- Take-home assumes one 2026 filer, filing single, taking the standard deduction, with no dependents, pre-tax retirement contributions or local income tax.
- Regional price parities compare price levels between places in one year. They are not inflation, and they do not adjust for what a household actually buys.
Technical details
Method occupation-wage-v1Data bls-oews-2025-05-v1, us-tax-2026-v1, bea-rpp-2024-v1, census-acs5-2024-v1
What lands in the bank
Tax year 2026 · InteractiveEstimated on the median salary of $38,500 in Delaware, for a single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026. Explore other wage levels and filing statuses below.
Run the numbers on your own pay
Same U.S. tax tables as the rest of the site. Change the salary, state, or filing status.
What $38,500 is worth in Delaware
Prices in Delaware sit at 99.8 against a national average of 100, so $38,500 earned here buys what $38,574 buys at national average prices.
- Rents. 102 against 100, the component that moves most between states.
- Against local households. The median household in Delaware takes in $84,954, so this occupation's median is 0.45 times that, on one income.
- How common the job is here. 42% less concentrated in Delaware than in the country as a whole.
Reading the numbers
What stands out for packaging machine operators in Delaware
Pay is tightly grouped: the 90th percentile ($51,710) is only 1.4 times the 10th ($36,800), so most packaging machine operators here earn within a narrow band.
The median for this job is 0.5 times the median household income in Delaware ($84,954). Many households have two earners, so one paycheck at this level falls short of what a typical local household brings in.
Common questions
Packaging Machine Operator pay in Delaware, answered
How much does a packaging machine operator make in Delaware?
The median wage for packaging machine operators in Delaware is $38,500 a year, or $18.51 an hour.
Half earn more than that and half earn less. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey for May 2025.
What is the average packaging machine operator salary in Delaware?
BLS’s mean (average) wage for packaging machine operators in Delaware is $41,900 a year. The median is $38,500.
The mean sits higher when a smaller group of high earners pulls the average up. For a typical paycheck, the median is the better middle.
What is the hourly pay for a packaging machine operator in Delaware?
The median hourly wage is $18.51. At a full-time year that lines up with about $38,500 a year.
BLS May 2025; hourly and annual figures come from the same survey.
What is the starting salary for a packaging machine operator in Delaware?
BLS does not publish starting pay. The closest figure it does publish is the low end of the range: in Delaware, the lowest-paid 10% of packaging machine operators earn under $36,800 a year and a quarter earn under $36,800 ($17.69 and $17.69 an hour).
New hires often start somewhere in that band, but the May 2025 survey does not record experience, so read it as a floor to compare an offer against rather than a typical first salary.
What is the salary range for a packaging machine operator in Delaware?
The overall salary range for packaging machine operators in Delaware spans from $36,800 for the bottom 10% to $51,710 for top earners.
The middle 50% earn between $36,800 and $45,440 a year, with the overall median at $38,500.
What is the take-home pay for a packaging machine operator in Delaware?
On the median wage of $38,500, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $31,655 a year, or roughly $2,638 a month.
That is after federal, state and FICA tax, an effective rate of 17.8%.
Delaware takes $1,460 of it in state income tax.
How much does a packaging machine operator make a month in Delaware?
On the median annual salary of $38,500, estimated take-home pay is roughly $2,638 a month after federal, state, and FICA taxes.
For workers paid on a standard biweekly schedule (26 pay periods per year), each paycheck is approximately $1,217 net.
Do packaging machine operators earn more in Delaware than in the rest of the country?
No. The median in Delaware is 10.9% below the national median of $43,220.
Nominal pay is only half the comparison: prices in Delaware sit at 99.8 against a national 100, so the gap in what the money buys is different from the gap in the salary.
Is $38,500 a good salary in Delaware?
It is 0.45 times the median household income of $84,954. A household often has more than one earner, so a single salary at this level goes further than the ratio alone suggests.
Prices in Delaware run at 99.8 against a national average of 100, with rents at 102, so $38,500 here buys about what $38,574 buys at national average prices.
What do the highest-paid packaging machine operators earn in Delaware?
The top tenth earn $51,710 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $36,800.
Experience, specialty, employer and the part of Delaware someone works in all move a wage inside that range; the survey reports the spread, not the reason for it.
How many packaging machine operators are there in Delaware?
The survey counted 680 of these jobs in Delaware for May 2025.
That makes the occupation 42% less concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.