Self-employment method
All Other Personal Services
753,478 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 753,478 people who filed under this code in 2022, 47.34% 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 = 753,478 · 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 | 222,541 | 29.5% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 134,160 | 17.8% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 191,194 | 25.4% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 97,405 | 12.9% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 58,744 | 7.8% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 34,449 | 4.6% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 9,483 | 1.3% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 3,581 | 0.5% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 1,568 | 0.2% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $11,558 for the year — $963 a month in revenue. That is a real second income and a long way short of a first one, and Census cannot tell you which of those the typical filer intended.
753,478 filings under one code. That is a population the size of a large occupation with none of a large occupation’s structure: no employer, no schedule, no floor. The distribution below is what that produces.
6.5% cleared $100,000 in receipts. That is a meaningful upper tier and it is worth asking what separates them, because it is rarely effort alone.
Independent personal services suit people who keep clients for years — a chair, a room or a round, one person, and a book built entirely by word of mouth.
There is no qualification, licence or minimum to appear in this data — you file and you are counted. Read the receipts distribution as the price of that: no barrier at the door means no filter before the numbers.
Who should not do this
The top quarter of All Other Personal Services earns 6.9x the bottom quarter — under $4,230 against over $29,350, a spread of $25,120. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of All Other Personal Services earns under $4,230 — $45,790 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 without a client book already forming. Rent on a chair or a unit begins immediately; the referrals do not.
Of the 753,478 people who filed as All Other Personal Services in 2022, 47.3% grossed under $10,000 for the year — 356,696 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.
What the spread tells you
A ratio of 6.9x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $11,558 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering All Other Personal Services should plan around it.
Put in money rather than ratios: $4,230 at the 25th percentile, $11,558 at the midpoint, $29,350 at the 75th. $25,120 separates the quarter of All Other Personal Services at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Getting to $29,350, the 75th percentile, is worth $17,792 a year more than the $11,558 midpoint and $25,120 more than the $4,230 a quarter of All Other Personal Services settle for.
From $11,558 the drop to $4,230 is $7,328 and the climb to $29,350 is $17,792. When the upper half of the range is that much longer, the average is pulled well above the median — which is exactly why this site publishes the median.
Converted to a 2,080-hour year, the receipts run $2.03 an hour at the 25th percentile, $5.55 at the midpoint and $14.11 at the 75th. Read them as revenue per hour worked; the equivalent wage is lower by whatever this work costs to do.
The raw counts, before anyone interprets them: under $5,000, 222,541 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 134,160. $10,000 to $24,999, 191,194. Over $100,000, 49,081 — and 14,632 over $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 $11,558 midpoint for All Other Personal Services is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $11,558 salary.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $11,558 because we have no verified record of unpaid hours or out-of-pocket costs for this work, and we would rather convert honestly than adjust invented ones.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else