Self-employment method
Automotive Body, Paint, Interior, and Glass Repair
66,046 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 66,046 people who filed under this code in 2022, 23.01% 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 = 66,046 · 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 | 8,238 | 12.5% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 6,962 | 10.5% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 14,221 | 21.5% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 12,317 | 18.6% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 10,742 | 16.3% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 9,366 | 14.2% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 3,017 | 4.6% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 946 | 1.4% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 237 | 0.4% |
Who this suits
At a $32,311 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.
With 66,046 filers, this is a populated field. The market sets the price rather than you, and the useful question is what would let you charge above it.
20.5% of filers grossed $100,000 or more. At that share the upper band is not an exception, it is a large minority of the field — though gross receipts at this level usually carry proportionate costs.
This suits people whose customers come back and send others, since in repair work reputation is the whole marketing budget.
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.
Who should not do this
7.6x between the quarters — $11,383 against $86,290, or $6,242 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 Automotive Body, Paint, Interior, and Glass Repair earns under $11,383 — $38,637 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 customer base already forming; the van payment starts immediately and the referrals do not.
15,197 of the 66,046 people filing in 2022 grossed under $10,000 across twelve months — 23.0% of the field. A quarter or more of everyone in Automotive Body, Paint, Interior, and Glass Repair took in less revenue than a part-time job would have paid in wages.
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 $11,383 to $86,290 is 7.6x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $32,311 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.
The middle half of this field earns between $11,383 and $86,290. That is $74,907 of range, with $32,311 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Getting to $86,290, the 75th percentile, is worth $53,979 a year more than the $32,311 midpoint and $74,907 more than the $11,383 a quarter of Automotive Body, Paint, Interior, and Glass Repair settle for.
The upper half of the middle range — $32,311 to $86,290, or $53,979 — is far longer than the lower half at $20,928. In a shape like this an average would flatter Automotive Body, Paint, Interior, and Glass Repair considerably, and would describe nobody.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Automotive Body, Paint, Interior, and Glass Repair takes $15.53 in revenue — $5.47 at the bottom quarter and $41.48 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: 8,238 filers grossed under $5,000, 6,962 took $5,000 to $9,999, 14,221 took $10,000 to $24,999, 13,566 cleared $100,000 and 4,200 cleared $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 $32,311 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $32,311 wage and should never be read as one.
The hourly number on this page is $32,311 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Automotive Body, Paint, Interior, and Glass Repair, 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