Agents and Managers for Artists, Athletes, Entertainers, and Other Public Figures

Median gross receipts of $15,061 put the typical filer somewhere between a serious side income and a failing attempt at a full-time one, and the receipts figure alone cannot tell you which.

41,119 people filed under this code. That is enough that Agents and Managers for Artists, Athletes, Entertainers, and Other Public Figures has a going local rate in most places, and enough that you will be quoted against someone else.

A 12.1% share — 4,975 filers — grossed $100,000 or more. That is well above what most codes here manage, and it says the middle of Agents and Managers for Artists, Athletes, Entertainers, and Other Public Figures is closer to a business than to a sideline.

Independent performing arts and sport work suits people who already have a second income, because the receipts distribution in this subsector is among the most bottom-heavy in the federal data.

There is no training requirement to file under this code — which is precisely why so many people appear in the bottom bands. Entry being free is not the same as the work being viable.

9.5x between the quarters — $4,657 against $44,179, or $3,293 a month. This is the shape of a field where a minority does very well and the summary statistics quietly borrow their success.

The bottom quarter of Agents and Managers for Artists, Athletes, Entertainers, and Other Public Figures earns under $4,657 — $45,363 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.

Do not start this on the assumption that you are the exception. The distribution below already contains everyone who thought so.

Of the 41,119 people who filed as Agents and Managers for Artists, Athletes, Entertainers, and Other Public Figures in 2022, 42.3% grossed under $10,000 for the year — 17,401 people who did not clear a part-time wage in revenue, let alone in profit.

Take it as a floor, not an estimate. The $10,000 threshold is measured on money received, before materials, rent, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax, so the true share of filers who ended the year with no income is higher than the figure shown — we simply cannot say how much higher.

From $4,657 to $44,179 is 9.5x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $15,061 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.

The middle half of this field earns between $4,657 and $44,179. That is $39,522 of range, with $15,061 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.

Getting to $44,179, the 75th percentile, is worth $29,118 a year more than the $15,061 midpoint and $39,522 more than the $4,657 a quarter of Agents and Managers for Artists, Athletes, Entertainers, and Other Public Figures settle for.

$10,404 below the midpoint, $29,118 above it. That asymmetry is extreme even for this data, and it means every summary of Agents and Managers for Artists, Athletes, Entertainers, and Other Public Figures that is not a median — including any average you see quoted elsewhere — is describing the top of the range rather than the middle.

Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Agents and Managers for Artists, Athletes, Entertainers, and Other Public Figures takes $7.24 in revenue — $2.23 at the bottom quarter and $21.23 at the top. Costs have not been deducted from any of those figures, so none of them is an hourly wage.

Counted straight off the return: 11,014 filers grossed under $5,000, 6,387 took $5,000 to $9,999, 9,241 took $10,000 to $24,999, 4,963 cleared $100,000 and 1,962 cleared $250,000.