Self-employment method
Bakeries and Tortilla Manufacturing
29,353 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 29,353 people who filed under this code in 2022, 50.66% 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 = 29,353 · 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 | 9,198 | 31.3% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 5,672 | 19.3% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 7,737 | 26.4% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 3,109 | 10.6% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 1,757 | 6.0% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 1,308 | 4.5% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 428 | 1.5% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 144 | 0.5% |
Who this suits
Median gross receipts of $9,829 put the typical Bakeries and Tortilla Manufacturing filer well below any full-time threshold. Revenue at that level covers a hobby’s costs and rarely much beyond them.
29,353 filings sit behind this code — a workforce the size of a mid-sized occupation that no payroll survey counts, because none of it runs through a payroll.
1,878 people — 6.4% of filers — grossed $100,000 or more. At that share the upper tier is visible from inside the field, which usually means someone doing Bakeries and Tortilla Manufacturing locally can tell you what those people do differently.
Independent food manufacturing suits people who can run a licensed, inspected kitchen at a scale above catering and treat shelf life and labelling as core competences.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 29,353 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 $3,989, top quarter over $23,852: 6.0x, or $1,655 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 Bakeries and Tortilla Manufacturing earns under $3,989 — $46,031 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 in an unlicensed space; the inspection regime is the entry cost and it is not optional.
The majority of this field — 50.7%, or 14,870 of 29,353 filers in 2022 — grossed under $10,000 for the year. When more than half the population is in the bottom band, that band is the normal outcome of Bakeries and Tortilla Manufacturing, not the failure case.
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
At 6.0x, the gap between $3,989 and $23,852 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $9,829 is real and it is not a forecast — the people quoting the upper end at you are describing a minority.
The middle half of this field earns between $3,989 and $23,852. That is $19,863 of range, with $9,829 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
The 75th percentile is $23,852. Reaching it from the $9,829 midpoint is $14,023 a year; reaching it from the $3,989 that the bottom quarter of Bakeries and Tortilla Manufacturing earn is $19,863.
From $9,829 the drop to $3,989 is $5,840 and the climb to $23,852 is $14,023. 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.
Spread across a 2,080-hour year those receipts come to $4.72 an hour at the midpoint, $1.91 at the 25th percentile and $11.46 at the 75th. That is turnover per hour, not pay per hour, and it is not comparable with the $24.04 an hour a typical American job pays.
Counted straight off the return: 9,198 filers grossed under $5,000, 5,672 took $5,000 to $9,999, 7,737 took $10,000 to $24,999, 1,880 cleared $100,000 and 572 cleared $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Read every figure here as GROSS RECEIPTS rather than income. $9,829 is turnover — the money that passed through Bakeries and Tortilla Manufacturing before expenses. What is left after costs is a different and much smaller number that this dataset does not publish.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $9,829 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