Delaware Paycheck Calculator 2026

How this calculator works

Delaware’s Division of Revenue describes an approved withholding method based on annualized wages, and this calculator follows it. Your pay is scaled up to a year. The standard deduction comes off ($3,250 for a single filer, $6,500 for a married couple filing jointly), the tax is read from a schedule with rates from 2.20% to 6.60%, and a $110 credit comes off the tax for each exemption. The yearly result is divided by your pay periods. The tax is figured the same way for every filing status; what changes is the deduction and the number of exemptions.

The calculator applies these deductions in this order:

• Federal income tax. Your gross pay minus the federal standard deduction for your filing status, run through the 2026 federal brackets.
• Social Security at 6.2% of gross wages, up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500.
• Medicare at 1.45% of all wages, with no cap, plus the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above $200,000.
• Delaware income tax: your wages after any 401(k) contribution, minus the Delaware standard deduction for your status, taxed through the schedule, less $110 for each exemption (one for single, two for married).
• Delaware Paid Leave: up to 0.40% of your wages, up to the Social Security wage base. This is the most an employee can be charged, and your employer may charge less. We assume the maximum.

This calculator has no other Delaware line. We looked for another state payroll deduction on your check and found none.

Rates come from the agencies that set them: the IRS for the federal brackets, the standard deduction and FICA, cross-checked against the Social Security Administration for the wage base; and, for Delaware, the Division of Revenue’s Employer’s Guide and withholding tables, the Department of Labor’s Delaware Paid Leave pages and regulations, the Delaware Code, and the City of Wilmington’s Earned Income Tax Regulations. Our full sourcing is on the methodology page.

What “current” means here. The Division’s guide labels its tax schedule “Effective January 1, 2025” and its printed withholding tables “Effective January 1, 2025 (No changes from January 1, 2014).” We found no table labeled 2026, and the Division’s tax season updates page, which we read on October 13, 2026, mentions no change to personal income tax rates, the standard deduction or the personal credit. So the Delaware figures on this page are the Division’s current ones, and we call them that rather than claiming Delaware published new tables for 2026. The federal figures, Social Security wage base and Medicare thresholds are the 2026 ones.

How we checked the formula against the printed tables. The Division prints wage-bracket tables for five pay periods: daily, weekly, biweekly, twice a month and monthly. Each row gives the tax for zero to eight credits. We rebuilt every printed value from the formula, using the middle of each row’s pay range, and compared 4,680 values. The largest difference was half a cent, which is the Division’s own rounding to the cent. So the rates, the standard deduction and the $110 credit on this page match what the Division prints, and an employer who reads the tables instead of using the formula will withhold the same amount to within a cent or so.

Withholding is an estimate, not your final bill. The figure here is what an employer takes from each check using the Division’s method. Your actual Delaware income tax is figured on your return, so what you owe or get back when you file can differ.

What the calculator deliberately leaves out: dependents, the City of Wilmington wage tax, the extra credit and deduction for people age 60, 65 or older, or blind, as well as bonuses, extra withholding, an employer that pays the Paid Leave contribution for you or covers parental leave only, and health insurance premiums and other employer benefit deductions.

Delaware’s seven steps and the income they apply to

These are the steps in the Division’s tax computation table. They apply to your taxable income, which is your yearly pay after the standard deduction, not to your pay itself. For a single filer on $75,000, taxable income is $75,000 − $3,250 = $71,750. Only the first $60,000 of it is taxed below 6.60%, so for any taxable income above $60,000, 6.60% is the rate on every extra dollar. For a single filer, that point is reached at $63,250 of yearly pay.

Standard deduction and exemptions: what changes with your status

Delaware has no separate table for each filing status. It gives each status its own standard deduction, and it gives a $110 credit for each exemption. The guide tells employers to rely on the allowances an employee claims on the federal Form W-4 or W-4A. This is how the calculator counts them.

The credit comes off the tax, not off your pay, so it is worth $110 a year to a single filer at any income that produces a tax bill of that size or more. The calculator does not ask about dependents. Each one you would add is worth another $110 of credit.

Delaware Paid Leave: the deduction your employer may take

Delaware Paid Leave began taking contributions on January 1, 2025, and benefits became available on January 1, 2026. The law sets the contribution at 0.80% of wages for 2025 and 2026 (0.40% medical, 0.08% family caregiving and 0.32% parental), and says an employer shall deduct not greater than 50% of the contribution from an employee’s wages. The Department of Labor adds that employers can require employees to contribute up to half the cost, and its regulations make a 50/50 split the default. Contributions stop once your wages reach the Social Security wage base for the year.

That makes the employee share at most 0.40% at an employer that must provide full coverage. An employer can pay all of it, so your deduction may be less than that, or nothing. Which employers take part depends on size, as the table shows. The last two columns are our arithmetic from the 50% rule, not a figure the Department prints.

This calculator assumes the maximum 0.40%, so it takes $300.00 from $75,000 and $738.00 from $250,000, where the wage base stops it. If your employer pays the whole contribution, add that amount back to the result.

The City of Wilmington wage tax

Wilmington taxes earned income at 1.25%. Under the city’s Earned Income Tax Regulations, the tax applies to residents of the city on their earnings wherever they work, and to nonresidents for work done or services rendered in the city. The regulations tell a Delaware employer to withhold it for city residents, and an employer with a work location in the city to withhold it for nonresidents who work there. In some cases a nonresident’s taxable earnings are apportioned by the days worked in the city. The regulations also tax earnings put into a retirement plan at the time they are deferred, so a 401(k) contribution does not lower this tax.

We read the rate in the regulations as revised in May 2023 and did not find a more recent change. On $75,000 the tax is $937.50 a year, or $78.13 a month, which would bring a single filer’s take-home pay from $57,684 to about $56,746. This calculator does not add it, because it cannot know where you live or where you work. We found no other local income tax on wages in the documents we read.

Delaware hourly paycheck: what your rate is worth after tax

Why we ask for your hours instead of assuming 2,080

Many hourly calculators multiply your rate by 2,080 and call it a year. That is 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, which describes a full-time schedule, not every hourly job. If you work 32 hours a week, or 45 with overtime, the assumed figure is wrong before any tax is applied. The calculator above asks for your hours and uses them.

What is $20 an hour after taxes in Delaware?

At 40 hours a week, $20 an hour is $41,600 a year gross. After federal tax, Social Security, Medicare, Delaware income tax withholding and Paid Leave, that leaves about $33,807 a year, or $2,817.27 a month. Your real hourly rate — what an hour of work actually puts in your bank account — is $16.25. Delaware’s share is $1,631.93 of income tax withholding plus $166.40 for Paid Leave for the year.

What are $25 and $30 an hour after taxes in Delaware?

$25 an hour is $52,000 gross and about $41,545 after tax, a real rate of $19.97. $30 an hour is $62,400 gross and about $49,282 after tax, a real rate of $23.69. Delaware income tax withholding is $2,209.13 a year at $25 an hour, and $2,786.33 at $30.

Overtime and bonuses

The calculator multiplies your rate by the hours you enter and adds no overtime premium, and it does not model bonuses. The Division’s guide has a section on supplemental wages with its own method for a bonus paid separately from regular pay, which this calculator does not use; ask your employer how a bonus will be withheld. If you work variable hours, enter the average number of hours you expect to work each week.

Delaware take-home pay by hourly rate

Single filer, 40 hours a week (2,080 hours a year), with the maximum Paid Leave deduction and no Wilmington tax.

What this calculator does not cover

This tool models federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and the payroll programs your state actually runs — nothing more. It deliberately leaves out:

• Itemized deductions and federal tax credits — the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, education credits. The engine always applies the standard deduction; there is no itemizing path.
• A second job, self-employment income or 1099 pay. Every dollar you enter is treated as one employer’s W-2 wages, taxed at the employee share of Social Security and Medicare — not the self-employment tax a 1099 worker actually owes.
• Pre-tax benefits other than the 401(k) field — health insurance premiums, an HSA or FSA, commuter benefits. The only amount taken out before tax is the percentage you enter for a 401(k).
• City of Wilmington wage tax — Wilmington taxes the pay of city residents wherever they work, and of nonresidents for work done in the city, at 1.25% under its Earned Income Tax Regulations (revised 2023). This calculator adds no local line for Delaware, because it cannot know where you live or work. If the city tax applies to you, your take-home pay is about 1.25% of your pay lower than the figure shown. We found no other local income tax on wages in the documents we read. The only local income tax lines on this site are on the Indiana and Maryland calculators.
• Overtime premiums. An hourly rate is multiplied by the hours you enter; it does not add a time-and-a-half rate for hours worked past 40 in a week.
• Wage garnishments or court-ordered deductions — child support, a wage levy. Your result assumes none exist.
• The Additional Medicare Tax, at the single-filer threshold. The 0.9% surtax above $200,000 is applied at that one figure for every filing status, the way an employer actually withholds it — not the higher threshold a married couple filing jointly may end up owing at tax return time.
• Married filing separately, or a qualifying surviving spouse. The calculator only offers single, married filing jointly, and head of household.

None of these are in the estimate. Some of them change what you owe or get back when you file, and a calculator cannot ask for everything they depend on. See why your pay stub will differ for the details.

Key facts that affect your take-home pay in Delaware

The first $2,000 of taxable income is not taxed

The schedule starts at 0.00% for the first $2,000. With the $3,250 standard deduction, a single filer’s yearly pay has to pass $5,250 before the schedule charges anything. At $30,000, Delaware withholds $988.13 a year.

Only the first $60,000 of taxable income is taxed below the top rate

The seven steps form a graduated schedule. The first $60,000 of taxable income produces $2,943.50 of tax. Compared with taxing every dollar up to $60,000 at 6.60%, the lower steps save a taxpayer $1,016.50 a year. Past $60,000, each extra dollar of taxable income is taxed at 6.60%, whether your pay is $75,000 or $250,000.

The standard deduction depends on your filing status

A single filer’s taxable income is pay minus $3,250. A married couple filing jointly gets $6,500 and two credits, which is why Delaware withholds $3,284.50 from a married filer on $75,000 and $3,609.00 from a single one. Taxable income for the married filer is $68,500.

Head of household is treated like a single filer

The Employer’s Guide lists a standard deduction for single, married filing jointly and married filing separately, and does not name head of household. The Division’s 2025 resident return gives a head of household $3,250, the same as a single filer, so the calculator withholds a head of household the way it does a single filer: $3,609.00 on $75,000. The federal tax is lower for a head of household ($5,748.00 on $75,000), so take-home pay is $59,606.

The schedule is the same one the Division printed for 2025

We found no Delaware table labeled 2026 and no announced change to the rates, the standard deduction or the credit. If the Division publishes a different schedule, the Delaware figures on this page will no longer match what employers use. The guide says the withholding tables show “No changes from January 1, 2014,” which is a long time to go without a change.

Paid Leave is the one extra line

Delaware Paid Leave is the one state payroll program we found that can come out of your pay. The Division of Unemployment Insurance’s employer handbook says workers do not pay any part of the Delaware unemployment tax and that employers can make no payroll deductions for it. We did not find a state disability insurance program run through payroll. That is a statement about what we read, not a guarantee that nothing else exists, and your pay stub is the final word.

A federal W-4 is enough

The guide says each new employee must give the employer a signed federal Form W-4 or W-4A. Its state worksheet, Form SD/W-4A, is offered for people whose tax is complicated by non-wage income and substantial deductions, and the guide says it “is not required of Delaware wage earners.” The guide also says an employee may need to claim a different number of allowances for Delaware, and gives a rule of thumb: take one additional allowance for each $2,000 by which your itemized deductions, net of state income taxes paid, exceed the $3,250 standard deduction.

Your 401(k) lowers your Delaware wages in this calculator

The Division’s guide does not mention 401(k) contributions, so this is our modeling choice, the same as for federal tax and every other state on this site. On $75,000 with 6% going in, Delaware income tax withholding falls by $297.00 a year. Paid Leave is not reduced, because those contributions are FICA wages. Enter 0 if your contribution is a Roth.

Social Security stops, Medicare does not

Social Security is withheld at 6.2% until your wages reach $184,500 in 2026, then stops for the rest of the year. Medicare has no ceiling at all: 1.45% on every dollar, plus an extra 0.9% on wages above $200,000. On $250,000, Social Security and Medicare take $15,514.00 in total, and Paid Leave stops at the same wage base, at $738.00.

Common mistakes

Forgetting the standard deduction

Applying the schedule to the full $75,000 instead of $71,750 overstates Delaware withholding by $214.50: $3,823.50 instead of $3,609.00, after the credit in both cases.

Taxing everything at the top rate

The 6.60% rate applies only to taxable income above $60,000. Applying it to all of $71,750 gives $4,625.50 after the credit, which overstates withholding by about $1,017.

Forgetting the credit

The $110 credit comes off the tax. Leaving it out turns $3,609.00 into $3,719.00 for a single filer, an overstatement of $110.00.

Treating the Paid Leave deduction as a tax

The $300.00 on $75,000 is a contribution to an insurance program that pays wage replacement to people on approved leave, and it is not part of your Delaware income tax. Your employer may pay all of it, and it has its own line on a pay stub.

Leaving out the Wilmington wage tax

If you live or work in Wilmington, the city tax is about 1.25% of your pay on top of everything above, which is $937.50 on $75,000. This calculator’s result does not include it.

Expecting the calculator to match the pay stub to the dollar

It will not, and no calculator can. Health insurance premiums and other pre-tax benefit deductions come out before tax and are not modeled here, and the allowances on your Form W-4 may differ from the ones we assume. Read why your pay stub will differ for the rest.

Example calculation

Amounts are shown to the cent, so adding the rounded lines can differ from the total by a cent.

A single filer earning $75,000 in Delaware in 2026, claiming one exemption and no retirement contribution, on the Division’s current schedule:

• Federal taxable income: $75,000 − federal standard deduction of $16,100 = $58,900
• Federal income tax: $7,670.00
• Social Security: $75,000 × 6.2% = $4,650.00
• Medicare: $75,000 × 1.45% = $1,087.50
• Delaware taxable income: $75,000 − $3,250 standard deduction = $71,750
• Tax on that income: $3,000 × 2.20% = $66.00, plus $5,000 × 3.90% = $195.00, plus $10,000 × 4.80% = $480.00, plus $5,000 × 5.20% = $260.00, plus $35,000 × 5.55% = $1,942.50, plus $11,750 × 6.60% = $775.50, which makes $3,719.00
• Less the $110 credit for one exemption: $3,609.00 a year of Delaware income tax withholding, $300.75 on a monthly paycheck or $138.81 on a biweekly one
• Delaware Paid Leave: $75,000 × 0.40% = $300.00
• Total withheld: $17,316.50
• Take-home pay: $57,683.50 a year, or $4,806.96 a month
• Effective tax rate: 23.1%

Frequently asked questions

Compare with other states

The same $75,000 salary, single filer, 2026 rates. Delaware borders Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and we have a calculator for every one of them. Delaware is shown with one exemption, its income tax withholding and the maximum Paid Leave deduction. The Maryland row includes Maryland’s local income tax at the Montgomery County rate, and the Pennsylvania row leaves out its local taxes, as Delaware’s row leaves out the Wilmington wage tax.

The table rounds take-home pay to the dollar; the differences in this paragraph use the exact amounts. Compared with a Delaware worker on the same salary, a Maryland worker keeps $1,528.80 less, a Pennsylvania worker keeps $1,554.00 more, and a New Jersey worker keeps $534.60 more. A worker who lives in one of those states and commutes into Delaware, or the reverse, is a different case that this calculator does not model: it assumes a Delaware resident working in Delaware.

Sources

Every figure on this page is read from an official document and dated, not taken from another calculator — the federal ones from the IRS and the Social Security Administration, the Delaware ones from the state’s own documents below. Each one carries the date we last checked that it still answers. If one of our numbers disagrees with one of theirs, they are right and we have a defect to fix — tell us.

The documents these figures are read from

• Delaware Division of Revenue — Employer’s Guide (Withholding Regulations and Employer’s Duties) — the annualized withholding method: a $3,250 standard deduction ($6,500 married filing jointly), the tax computation table with rates from 2.20% to 6.60%, and a $110 credit for each personal exemption; the guide labels its schedule “Effective January 1, 2025”.
• Delaware Division of Revenue — Withholding tables, monthly payroll period, effective January 1, 2025 (PDF) — the printed monthly wage-bracket table, one of five the Division prints (daily, weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, monthly), which this calculator’s formula reproduces.
• Delaware Division of Revenue — Form PIT-RES, 2025 resident return (PDF) — the standard deduction by filing status ($3,250 for statuses 1, 3 and 5, which include head of household, and $6,500 for status 2) and the $110 personal credit.
• Delaware Division of Revenue — 2025-2026 Tax Season Updates — the Division’s list of changes for the 2025 tax year, which mentions no change to personal income tax rates, the standard deduction or the personal credit.
• Delaware Code, Title 19, Chapter 37 — Healthy Delaware Families Act (section 3705, Contributions) — the 2025 and 2026 paid leave contribution rates (0.4% medical, 0.08% family caregiving, 0.32% parental) and the rule that an employer shall deduct not greater than 50% of the contribution from an employee’s wages.
• Delaware Department of Labor — Delaware Paid Leave — the statement that employers can require employees to contribute up to half the cost, and which employers must take part (nine or fewer employees exempt, 10 to 24 parental leave only, 25 or more full coverage).
• Delaware Department of Labor — Regulations for Delaware Paid Leave (PDF) — the rule that contributions stop once an employee’s paid leave wages reach the FICA limit for the year, and the 50/50 default split of the contribution between employer and employee.
• Delaware Division of Unemployment Insurance — Unemployment Insurance Employer Handbook (PDF) — the statement that workers do not pay any part of the Delaware unemployment tax and that employers can make no payroll deductions for it.
• City of Wilmington — Earned Income Tax Regulations (revised May 25, 2023, PDF) — the 1.25% city wage tax on residents of the city and on nonresidents for work done in the city, and the employer’s duty to withhold and remit it.
• IRS — 2026 inflation adjustments (Rev. Proc. 2025-32) — the federal brackets and the $16,100 standard deduction.
• IRS — Topic no. 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding rates — the 6.2% and 1.45% rates and the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax.
• SSA — Contribution and benefit base — the $184,500 Social Security wage base.

The agencies that set them

These are the offices that set the figures. We link them so you can start from the source yourself, but an agency’s own summary page is not always current, and we do not claim that these pages carry the 2026 number — several of them do not. Where a rate was read somewhere else, in a statute, a withholding guide or an estimated-tax form, the exact document and the date we read it are on our methodology page.

• City of Wilmington — City Wage & Net Profits Taxes.

All links checked October 13, 2026.

Related reading

• Paycheck calculators by state — the full index, including which states have no income tax at all.
• Maryland paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the west and south, which adds a local income tax set by your county.
• Pennsylvania paycheck calculator — the neighbor to the north, with a flat 3.07% from the first dollar.
• New Jersey paycheck calculator — the neighbor across the Delaware River and Bay, with two withholding tables and three employee contributions.
• $75,000 take-home pay in every state we publish — where Delaware ranks on one salary.
• Methodology — the exact formula, every 2026 figure with its official source, and what these calculators deliberately do not model.
• Why your pay stub will differ — pre-tax deductions, credits and W-4 settings, and how much difference is normal.