Teacher Salary in Delaware 2026,
$75,920 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Delaware figure is $75,920 a year per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $50,330 at the 10th percentile to $94,100 at the 90th. That is 18.7% above the national median of $63,970. BLS publishes no hourly wage for this occupation — it is reported on an annual basis — and the row is SOC 25-2021, elementary school teachers except special education, used here as the anchor for teaching generally.

Because the salary schedule is written into state law. Delaware sets a statewide teacher salary structure funded substantially by the state, with districts adding local supplements on top, rather than leaving base pay to be set from each district's own property tax base. That raises the floor everywhere in the state, which is why the 25th percentile of $60,960 is already close to the national median of $63,970. It is a policy result, not a labour market one.

The Delaware Department of Education, working with the Professional Standards Board, on a tiered structure: an Initial Licence for new teachers, a Continuing Licence thereafter, and an Advanced Licence tied to National Board Certification. Alongside the licence sits certification in the specific content area and grade range assigned. Entry requires a bachelor's degree, an approved educator preparation programme, examinations and a background check, with alternative routes for career changers and reciprocity for teachers licensed elsewhere.

Only Dover publishes a figure, at $75,080, essentially level with the Delaware statewide $75,920 and well above the United States figure of $63,970. Delaware's largest teaching market — Wilmington and New Castle County — sits inside the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area, which BLS publishes as its own multi-state area rather than as a Delaware metro. The statewide figure is therefore the one to use.

Yes, and unusually directly. Delaware ties its Advanced Licence to National Board Certification and attaches a salary supplement to it in state law, which is rare — in most states a national private credential carries whatever a district chooses to pay for it, if anything. Combined with a master's degree and long service, it is the principal route from the $75,920 median toward the $86,260 seventy-fifth percentile and the $94,100 ninetieth.

It moves the wage decision from the district to the legislature, and that changes the shape of the distribution. In a locally financed system, a wealthy district can pay far above a poor one in the same state, producing a wide band and large geographic variation. Delaware's structure sets a state-funded base schedule that every district applies, with local supplements added on top — so the floor is uniform and the variation comes from supplements, degree attainment and service years. The visible result is a $60,960 twenty-fifth percentile that is already near the national median, an 18.7% state premium, and a metro table with essentially no geographic spread. It also means teacher pay in Delaware is a legislative question, and rises or stalls with the state budget rather than with a local levy.

Partly boundary, partly structure. A substantial share of Delaware's population lives in New Castle County, whose employment is counted within the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area — but state employment counts should still capture Delaware-based teachers, so the low quotient is more likely a reflection of the state's demographic profile and its private and charter school sector than of a boundary artefact alone. What it means practically is that Delaware has fewer elementary teaching posts than its employment size predicts, and with about 190 pro-rated openings a year across the state, entry is competitive relative to the wage on offer.

South. The national projection of minus 2% reflects shrinking elementary cohorts, but Delaware is not demographically uniform: Sussex County has been growing rapidly for years, adding pupils and school capacity, while other parts of the state have not. That produces a market where the aggregate projection is close to meaningless for an individual job search and where the useful questions are about county and certification area. A teacher with certification in a hard-to-fill area — special education, secondary mathematics and science, world languages — will find the market considerably more receptive than a 0.67 location quotient and a negative national projection suggest.