Self-employment method
Building finishing contractors
679,793 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 679,793 people who filed under this code in 2022, 24.88% 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 = 679,793 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full receipts distribution as Census publishes it. The median above is interpolated inside whichever band contains the 50th percentile, so this table is what that figure is derived from.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 98,727 | 14.5% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 70,438 | 10.4% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 157,100 | 23.1% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 135,606 | 19.9% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 105,213 | 15.5% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 76,417 | 11.2% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 25,504 | 3.8% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 10,783 | 1.6% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 5 | 0.0% |
Who this suits
At a $27,513 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.
679,793 filings make this a crowded field. Crowding is not automatically bad, but it does mean the price of the work is set by whoever will do it cheapest.
16.6% of filers grossed $100,000 or more, which is high for this dataset. A substantial share of this field is running an actual business rather than an occasional one.
Going independent in construction converts a wage into a bid. It suits people who can price a job accurately, because the whole margin lives in the estimate rather than in the work.
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
The top quarter of Building finishing contractors earns 7.2x the bottom quarter — under $10,075 against over $72,798, a spread of $62,723. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Building finishing contractors earns under $10,075 — $39,945 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 if you have never priced a job. Underbidding is the single most common way people in this sector work a full year for nothing.
24.9% of the 679,793 Building finishing contractors filings in 2022 reported under $10,000 in gross receipts for the year — 169,132 people who took in less 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
A ratio of 7.2x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $27,513 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Building finishing contractors should plan around it.
In cash terms the middle half of Building finishing contractors runs $10,075 to $72,798 — $62,723 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $27,513.
Getting to $72,798, the 75th percentile, is worth $45,285 a year more than the $27,513 midpoint and $62,723 more than the $10,075 a quarter of Building finishing contractors settle for.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $13.22 at the midpoint for Building finishing contractors, $4.84 at the 25th percentile and $34.99 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
Counted straight off the return: 98,727 filers grossed under $5,000, 70,438 took $5,000 to $9,999, 157,100 took $10,000 to $24,999, 112,709 cleared $100,000 and 36,292 cleared $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 $27,513 midpoint for Building finishing contractors is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $27,513 salary.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Building finishing contractors, the hourly figure is $27,513 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · Look up something else