2026 Delaware paycheck calculator
Delaware taxes pay at 2.2 to 6.6 percent, and smaller employers deduct less paid leave or none.
Updated for 2026Checked Oct 29, 2026 against IRS and Delaware Division of Revenue sourcesHow we check
Your take-home pay
$1,225.88
per paycheck, paid every two weeks
- Gross pay
- $1,500.00
- Federal income tax
- $96.15
- Social Security
- $93.00
- Medicare
- $21.75
- County tax
- Choose your county
- Delaware Paid Leave
- $6.00
- Take-home
- $1,225.88
Delaware Paid Leave stops once your 2026 pay passes $184,500.
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Take-home pay $1,225.88
Delaware pay rules at a glance
| State income tax | Rates rise with pay Source |
| County or local tax | The City of Wilmington levies an earned income tax, which employers withhold, on the wages of city residents and of nonresidents who work in the city. State law caps it at 1.25 percent and allows it only in a city of more than 50,000 people. Source |
| Disability or paid leave | Delaware Paid Leave: 0.4% of pay, on the first $184,500 of pay in a calendar year Source |
| Minimum wage | $15.00 an hour Source |
| Tipped minimum cash wage | $2.23 an hour, before tips Source |
| Final paycheck if you are let go | By the later of the next regular payday for the period worked or three business days after the last day worked. Source |
| Final paycheck if you quit | Same rule: the later of the next regular payday or three business days after the last day worked. Source |
What comes out of a Delaware paycheck
On $1,500 every two weeks, single, a Delaware worker keeps $1,225.88.
Delaware starts taxing yearly pay after $2,000 and climbs through six rates, from 2.2 percent to 6.6 percent. Your employer scales a paycheck to a year, subtracts the standard deduction, and reads the tax from a table. Then a $110 credit comes off for each exemption, and the rest is divided across your paychecks.
The standard deduction is $3,250 for a single worker and $6,500 for a married worker. In the table, pay between $2,000 and $5,000 is taxed at 2.2 percent. After that the rate is 3.9 percent over $5,000, 4.8 percent over $10,000, 5.2 percent over $20,000, 5.55 percent over $25,000, and 6.6 percent over $60,000. Each step adds a fixed amount first, such as $741 at $20,000.
Form DE-W4 has only Single and Married boxes, so a head of household files as Single. Married maps to the joint deduction of $6,500. Exemptions are one for you, one for a spouse if you are married, and one per dependent. The form's line 4 is labeled dependents, but the worksheet beside it counts the worker and spouse too, and the calculator follows the worksheet. Delaware does not subtract federal tax, and the guide gives no rounding rule, so the calculator rounds to the cent.
County and local taxes
The City of Wilmington levies an earned income tax, and employers withhold it. It applies to the wages of residents and of nonresidents who work in the city. State law lets only a city of more than 50,000 people charge it and caps it at 1.25 percent. Wilmington's own pages would not open for us, so we have not confirmed the city's actual rate. The calculator leaves this tax out, so a Wilmington worker should expect more to come out than the result shows.
Disability and paid leave
Delaware Paid Leave lets an employer with 25 or more workers take up to 0.4 percent of your wages, half of the 0.8 percent contribution, on the first $184,500 of wages in 2026. Contributions began on January 1, 2025, and benefits began on January 1, 2026. The calculator assumes a larger employer that takes the full share.
Smaller employers deduct less. An employer with 10 to 24 workers covers parental leave only, so it may take at most 0.16 percent. An employer with fewer than 10 workers is not covered and takes nothing. The deduction is allowed and not required, so an employer may pay all or part of your share, and an approved private plan can stand in for the state program. From 2027 the Department of Labor sets the rates each year.
Final pay and the minimum wage
Delaware's minimum wage is $15.00 an hour, in place since January 1, 2025, and no later increase is scheduled. The tipped cash wage is $2.23.
If you quit, resign, are let go, are suspended, or are laid off, the employer owes your wages on the later of two dates. One is the next regular payday for the period you worked. The other is three business days after your last day worked.
Nearby states
Sources and checks
Checked on Oct 29, 2026. Source: Delaware Division of Revenue, Employer's Guide, Withholding Regulations and Employer's Duties, Section 17 'Computing Withholding Taxes', 'Withholding Methods Based on Annualized Wages', with the 'Tax Computation Table Effective January 1, 2025' (revenue.delaware.gov/employers-guide-withholding-regulations-employers-duties/, saved as data/sources/delaware/employers-guide.html, read Oct 29, 2026). The same rates (2.2, 3.9, 4.8, 5.2, 5.55, and 6.6 percent) stand in 30 Del. C. section 1102 (delcode.delaware.gov, saved as data/sources/delaware/title30-c11.html), with no change for 2026.
Local taxes: 22 Del. C. chapter 9, Municipal User Tax (delcode.delaware.gov/title22/c009/, saved as data/sources/delaware/22-del-c-c009.html, read Oct 29, 2026): section 901, 'Any municipality of this State with a population in excess of 50,000 persons is hereby authorized to levy, assess and collect a tax for general revenue purposes on earned income', with employers to deduct it from pay; section 902, 'Any tax assessed within this tax shall not exceed 1.25 percent of the income of residents of such city per annum and 1.25 percent of the income of nonresidents earned within the city per annum.' The city's own rate page could not be fetched (see openQuestions). The calculator does not include this tax.
Disability and paid leave: 19 Del. C. chapter 37, Healthy Delaware Families Act (delcode.delaware.gov/title19/c037/, saved as data/sources/delaware/19-del-c-ch37.html, read Oct 29, 2026): section 3705(b), 'Beginning on January 1, 2025', with 'For 2025 and 2026' rates of 0.4% for medical leave, 0.08% for family caregiving leave, and 0.32% for parental leave; section 3705(d) to (f), 'an employer shall deduct not greater than 50% of the contribution required for the employee. However, an employer may elect to pay all or any portion of the employee's share'; section 3701, employers with 10 to 24 employees are 'subject to only the parental leave provisions' and employers with 25 or more employees to all of them; section 3701(24), 'Wages' means remuneration 'as determined for purposes of old-age, survivors, and disability insurance' under FICA, so the 2026 cap is the $184,500 Social Security wage base (data/federal.json); section 3702(a), benefits are payable 'Beginning 1 year after the start of contributions under section 3705'.
Minimum wage: 19 Del. C. section 902(a)(5) (delcode.delaware.gov/title19/c009/, saved as data/sources/delaware/19-del-c-c009.html, read Oct 29, 2026): 'Not less than $15.00 per hour effective January 1, 2025'; section 902(b): for tipped employees 'In no event shall the minimum rate, under this subsection, be less than $2.23 per hour.' Delaware Division of Industrial Affairs, Wage and Hour (industrialaffairs.delaware.gov/wage-hour, saved as data/sources/delaware/industrialaffairs-wage-hour.html): 'Current Minimum Wage: $15.00 as of January 1, 2025 Tipped Employees: Minimum cash wage of $2.23/hour'. The statute schedules no later increase.
Final paycheck: 19 Del. C. section 1103(a)(1) (delcode.delaware.gov/title19/c011/, saved as data/sources/delaware/19-del-c-c011.html, read Oct 29, 2026): 'Whenever an employee quits, resigns, is discharged, suspended, or laid off, the wages earned by the employee become due and payable by the employer on the later of the following: a. The next date the wages would be paid through the last day worked under the employer's regular pay cycle as if the employment had not stopped. b. Three business days after the last day worked.'
Federal withholding: IRS Publication 15-T (2026), Worksheet 1A and its "2026 Percentage Method Tables for Automated Payroll Systems and Withholding on Periodic Payments of Pensions and Annuities," pages 10 to 12. Fetched directly from irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15t.pdf and transcribed Oct 28, 2026.
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