What Child, Family, and School Social Workers earn in Cecil County, MD
According to the latest federal wage data for the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metropolitan area, the median pay for Child, Family, and School Social Workers in Cecil County, MD is $55,930 a year, or $26.89 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $44,744 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Cecil County, MD.
The mean wage is $60,400, which is 8.0% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 6,850 people working in this occupation across the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Cecil County, MD has roughly 104,960 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Child, Family, and School Social Workers in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $41,980 a year ($20.18 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $88,870 or more ($42.73 an hour). That is a gap of $46,890 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $47,250 at the 25th percentile and $73,500 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.1 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Employers quote this occupation by the hour or by the year, so here are both: $26.89 an hour or $55,930 a year at the median for Cecil County, MD. Before any deductions, that is $4,661 a month, $2,151 every two weeks and $1,076 each week. After taxes the same job pays $21.51 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Child, Family, and School Social Workers
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Child, Family, and School Social Workers this way: "Provide social services and assistance to improve the social and psychological functioning of children and their families and to maximize the family well-being and the academic functioning of children. May assist parents, arrange adoptions, and find foster homes for abandoned or abused children. In schools, they address such problems as teenage pregnancy, misbehavior, and truancy. May also advise teachers."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Interview clients individually, in families, or in groups, assessing their situations, capabilities, and problems to determine what services are required to meet their needs"; "Counsel individuals, groups, families, or communities regarding issues including mental health, poverty, unemployment, substance abuse, physical abuse, rehabilitation, social adjustment, child care, or medical care"; "Maintain case history records and prepare reports"; "Consult with parents, teachers, and other school personnel to determine causes of problems, such as truancy and misbehavior, and to implement solutions".
Job outlook for Child, Family, and School Social Workers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 405,100 jobs in 2025 to 422,900 in 2035, a change of +4.4%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 33,900 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 8.4% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: bachelor's degree. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $59,550 for this occupation; the Cecil County, MD median of $55,930 is 6.1% below it.
How pay in Cecil County, MD compares
Compared with the Maryland average
Pay in Cecil County, MD runs $11,466 below the Maryland average of $67,396, a gap of 17.0%. A worker who moved to a better-paying part of Maryland would, on paper, gain that difference before taxes.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Child, Family, and School Social Workers is $60,796 across the contiguous United States. At $55,930, Cecil County, MD pays $4,866 less, which is 8.0% below that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Cecil County, MD
Among the 636 occupations with published wages in Cecil County, MD, Child, Family, and School Social Workers ranks number 395 by median pay, ahead of about 38% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $173,470 a year, which is $117,540 more than the median for Child, Family, and School Social Workers.
From gross pay to take-home pay
Three separate tax bills sit between the gross salary and the bank account: federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax. For Child, Family, and School Social Workers earning the Cecil County, MD median of $55,930, they add up to $11,186. The result is $44,744 of take-home pay a year ($3,729 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $20 goes to taxes and $80 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 20.0%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $40,180. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $4,583, an effective 8.2% of gross pay, well below the 12% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $3,468 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $811. FICA totals $4,279, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Maryland
Maryland income tax on this salary is $2,324 a year, or 4.2% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 51% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $194 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Cecil County, MD
IRS Statistics of Income data for Cecil County, MD show an average adjusted gross income of $82,771 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 12.3% across all filers. Filers in the $50,000 to under $75,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 7.2%, compared with the 8.2% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Cecil County, MD
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Cecil County, MD: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $44,744 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Cecil County, MD, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,558 a month ($18,696 a year), and at $1,860 for two bedrooms. For Child, Family, and School Social Workers, a one-bedroom absorbs 41.8% of take-home pay and 33.4% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 6.1% of gross pay for Child, Family, and School Social Workers in Cecil County, MD. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Maryland residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,887 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $634, for $2,521 in total. Gasoline in Maryland averages $3.33 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,539.
What is left over
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $26,192 a year in Cecil County, MD. Subtract that from $44,744 of take-home pay and $18,553 remains, which is $1,546 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 33.2% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Cecil County, MD
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Cecil County, MD: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Cecil County, MD, set beside the Maryland and national medians.
Property taxes in Cecil County, MD
Homeowners in Cecil County, MD pay a median of $3,068 a year in real estate taxes, 25% below the Maryland median of $4,093 and 2% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $343,400, the median tax bill is 0.89% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Child, Family, and School Social Workers median of $55,930, a tax bill of that size would equal 5.5% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Cecil County, MD
Renters in Cecil County, MD pay a median gross rent of $1,377 a month in the Census survey, 19% below the Maryland median of $1,705. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,558 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $343,400, 18% below the Maryland median of $419,900. Median household income is $92,007, 11% below the Maryland median of $103,678, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 20.3% of that income.
Commuting in Cecil County, MD
Workers in Cecil County, MD who travel to a workplace spend an average of 28.5 minutes each way, 8% below the Maryland average of 31.1. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.8 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 12.4% of workers in Cecil County, MD work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Child, Family, and School Social Workers afford to live in Cecil County, MD?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $55,930 that ceiling is $1,398 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,558 is $160 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $29.96 an hour; the median for Child, Family, and School Social Workers is $26.89, which is 10% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $21.51 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 16.7 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,860 a month means $930 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $7,536 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $26,089.
How fast you can save
At $1,546 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 7 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 14 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Child, Family, and School Social Workers pay in Cecil County, MD
How much do Child, Family, and School Social Workers make per hour in Cecil County, MD?
The median is $26.89 per hour, based on $55,930 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $20.18 at the 10th percentile to $42.73 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Child, Family, and School Social Workers take home after taxes in Cecil County, MD?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $55,930 becomes $44,744 a year. That is $3,729 a month, $1,721 every two weeks or $860 a week.
How much tax do Child, Family, and School Social Workers pay in Cecil County, MD?
Total taxes are $11,186 a year, an effective rate of 20.0%: $4,583 federal income tax, $4,279 FICA and $2,324 Maryland income tax.
Do Child, Family, and School Social Workers earn more in Cecil County, MD than elsewhere in Maryland?
No. The local median of $55,930 is -17.0% versus the Maryland average of $67,396, a difference of $11,466 a year.
Can Child, Family, and School Social Workers afford a one-bedroom apartment in Cecil County, MD?
A one-bedroom costs $1,558 a month against take-home pay of $3,729, which is 41.8% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,398 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Child, Family, and School Social Workers in Cecil County, MD?
About $1,546 a month ($18,553 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $26,192 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Cecil County, MD at the 30% guideline?
$29.96 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $18,696 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Child, Family, and School Social Workers is $26.89.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Maryland rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.