Self-employment method
Air Transportation
27,740 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 27,740 people who filed under this code in 2022, 34.81% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 27,740 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full distribution Census publishes. The median above is interpolated inside the band that holds the 50th percentile.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 5,514 | 19.9% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 4,142 | 15.0% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 5,834 | 21.1% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 4,088 | 14.8% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 3,280 | 11.8% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 2,721 | 9.8% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 1,035 | 3.7% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 655 | 2.4% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 420 | 1.5% |
Who this suits
At a $20,769 median in gross receipts, the typical person under this code is running a real but part-time operation. Full-time equivalence would require roughly triple this before costs.
27,740 people filed under this code, almost none of whom appear in any employment statistic. Air Transportation is part of the economy salary surveys simply do not see.
A 17.4% share — 4,826 filers — grossed $100,000 or more. That is well above what most codes here manage, and it says the middle of Air Transportation is closer to a business than to a sideline.
Independent air transportation is capital- and certificate-heavy, and suits people who already have both rather than people assembling them.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 27,740 people did. Free entry is why the lower bands are as full as they are: the distribution below counts everyone who tried, not everyone who was ready.
Who should not do this
The top quarter of Air Transportation earns 10.2x the bottom quarter — under $6,700 against over $68,121, a spread of $61,421. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Air Transportation earns under $6,700 — $43,320 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 underinsured or under-maintained. This is the one sector here where cutting either is not survivable.
34.8% of the 27,740 people who filed in 2022 grossed under $10,000 for the year — 9,656 people. Approaching half of everyone who tried Air Transportation took in less revenue than a part-time wage, before costs.
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.
What the spread tells you
From $6,700 to $68,121 is 10.2x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $20,769 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.
In cash terms the middle half of Air Transportation runs $6,700 to $68,121 — $61,421 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $20,769.
Getting to $68,121, the 75th percentile, is worth $47,352 a year more than the $20,769 midpoint and $61,421 more than the $6,700 a quarter of Air Transportation settle for.
$14,069 below the midpoint, $47,352 above it. That asymmetry is extreme even for this data, and it means every summary of Air Transportation that is not a median — including any average you see quoted elsewhere — is describing the top of the range rather than the middle.
Converted to a 2,080-hour year, the receipts run $3.22 an hour at the 25th percentile, $9.98 at the midpoint and $32.75 at the 75th. Read them as revenue per hour worked; the equivalent wage is lower by whatever this work costs to do.
Straight from the Census bands for Air Transportation: 5,514 filers under $5,000, 4,142 between $5,000 and $9,999, 5,834 between $10,000 and $24,999, 4,831 above $100,000 and 2,110 above $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Every figure above is GROSS RECEIPTS, before expenses — money that arrived before rent, materials, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax. The $20,769 midpoint for Air Transportation is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $20,769 salary.
The hourly number on this page is $20,769 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Air Transportation, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else