Self-employment method
All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
837,045 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 837,045 people who filed under this code in 2022, 36.17% 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 = 837,045 · 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 | 183,135 | 21.9% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 119,620 | 14.3% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 174,048 | 20.8% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 124,690 | 14.9% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 106,078 | 12.7% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 84,517 | 10.1% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 27,685 | 3.3% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 10,872 | 1.3% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 5,021 | 0.6% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $19,918 for the year — $1,659 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.
837,045 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.
A 15.3% share — 128,067 filers — grossed $100,000 or more. That is well above what most codes here manage, and it says the middle of All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services is closer to a business than to a sideline.
Professional services are the classic solo business: low capital, high skill, and a ceiling set by how many hours you can sell. It suits people who can market as competently as they deliver.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 837,045 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
Bottom quarter under $6,078, top quarter over $61,905: 10.2x, or $4,652 a month. At this stretch the label has stopped describing one occupation, and every summary statistic about it — including the midpoint — should be treated with suspicion.
The bottom quarter of All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services earns under $6,078 — $43,942 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 first client already. Capability does not generate demand in this subsector, and the gap between the two is where most of these businesses end.
36.2% of the 837,045 people who filed in 2022 grossed under $10,000 for the year — 302,759 people. Approaching half of everyone who tried All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services took in less revenue than a part-time wage, before costs.
Read that as a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes gross receipts, not net income, so everyone inside that share earned less than $10,000 suggests once costs came out — and filers who grossed well above $10,000 may still have netted nothing.
What the spread tells you
At 10.2x, the gap between $6,078 and $61,905 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $19,918 is real and it is not a forecast — the people quoting the upper end at you are describing a minority.
In cash terms the middle half of All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services runs $6,078 to $61,905 — $55,827 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $19,918.
Getting to $61,905, the 75th percentile, is worth $41,987 a year more than the $19,918 midpoint and $55,827 more than the $6,078 a quarter of All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services settle for.
$13,840 below the midpoint, $41,987 above it. That asymmetry is extreme even for this data, and it means every summary of All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 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 $2.92 an hour at the 25th percentile, $9.57 at the midpoint and $29.76 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 All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services: 183,135 filers under $5,000, 119,620 between $5,000 and $9,999, 174,048 between $10,000 and $24,999, 128,095 above $100,000 and 43,578 above $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
These are GROSS RECEIPTS: everything that came in, before expenses. Rent, stock, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax all come out of the $19,918 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $19,918 wage and should never be read as one.
The hourly number on this page is $19,918 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, 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