Median pay · Delaware
$78,490A year. BLS publishes no hourly wage for this occupation.| Percentile | Annual | Hourly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile1 in 10 earn less | $57,020 | Not published |
| 25th percentile | $61,440 | Not published |
| MedianHalf earn more, half less | $78,490 | Not published |
| 75th percentile | $81,960 | Not published |
| 90th percentile1 in 10 earn more | $94,830 | Not published |
| MeanAll pay divided by all jobs | $74,760 | Not published |
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.$78,490
- Take-home after federal, state and FICA tax$5,017 a month at an effective rate of 23.3%.$60,208 a year
- Worth at national average pricesPrices in Delaware sit at 99.8 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$78,641
- Against the national medianThe national median is $74,260.5.7% above
- Jobs countedA concentration of 2.27 against the nation's 1.00.1,160
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.
- BLS publishes only an annual wage for this occupation, because a standard 2,080-hour year would misdescribe it.
- 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 $78,490 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 $78,490 is worth in Delaware
Prices in Delaware sit at 99.8 against a national average of 100, so $78,490 earned here buys what $78,641 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 0.92 times that, on one income.
- How common the job is here. 127% more concentrated in Delaware than in the country as a whole.
Reading the numbers
What stands out for special education teachers in Delaware
Special education teachers hold 2.3 times the share of jobs in Delaware that they hold nationally, with 1,160 counted.
The top of the pay range is stretched out. Going from the 75th to the 90th percentile adds $12,870, against $3,470 from the median to the 75th. The best-paid 10% of special education teachers in Delaware make $94,830 or more.
Even the lowest-paid 10% of special education teachers in Delaware make at least $57,020 a year.
Pay is tightly grouped: the 90th percentile ($94,830) is only 1.7 times the 10th ($57,020), so most special education teachers here earn within a narrow band.
Common questions
Special Education Teacher pay in Delaware, answered
How much does a special education teacher make in Delaware?
The median wage for special education teachers in Delaware is $78,490 a year.
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 special education teacher salary in Delaware?
BLS’s mean (average) wage for special education teachers in Delaware is $74,760 a year. The median is $78,490.
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 starting salary for a special education teacher 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 special education teachers earn under $57,020 a year and a quarter earn under $61,440.
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 special education teacher in Delaware?
The overall salary range for special education teachers in Delaware spans from $57,020 for the bottom 10% to $94,830 for top earners.
The middle 50% earn between $61,440 and $81,960 a year, with the overall median at $78,490.
What is the take-home pay for a special education teacher in Delaware?
On the median wage of $78,490, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $60,208 a year, or roughly $5,017 a month.
That is after federal, state and FICA tax, an effective rate of 23.3%.
Delaware takes $3,839 of it in state income tax.
How much does a special education teacher make a month in Delaware?
On the median annual salary of $78,490, estimated take-home pay is roughly $5,017 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 $2,316 net.
Do special education teachers earn more in Delaware than in the rest of the country?
Yes. The median in Delaware is 5.7% above the national median of $74,260.
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 $78,490 a good salary in Delaware?
It is 0.92 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 $78,490 here buys about what $78,641 buys at national average prices.
What do the highest-paid special education teachers earn in Delaware?
The top tenth earn $94,830 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $57,020.
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 special education teachers are there in Delaware?
The survey counted 1,160 of these jobs in Delaware for May 2025.
That makes the occupation 127% more concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.
