Self-employment method
Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services
59,510 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 59,510 people who filed under this code in 2022, 48.76% 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 = 59,510 · 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 | 18,272 | 30.7% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 10,748 | 18.1% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 13,472 | 22.6% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 7,001 | 11.8% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 4,619 | 7.8% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 3,461 | 5.8% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 1,136 | 1.9% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 550 | 0.9% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 251 | 0.4% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $10,818 for the year — $901 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.
With 59,510 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.
9.1% of filers grossed $100,000 or more. That is a substantial upper tier by the standards of this dataset — the difference between a full operation and an occasional one is visible in the distribution rather than only in the anecdotes.
Independent hosting and data processing suits people selling a service with recurring revenue, which is the rare shape in this dataset where income does not restart at zero each month.
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 Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services earns 8.0x the bottom quarter — under $4,071 against over $32,644, a spread of $28,573. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services earns under $4,071 — $45,949 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 pricing support properly; the recurring revenue also means a recurring obligation.
48.8% of 59,510 filers in 2022 took under $10,000 across the entire year: 29,017 people. Close to half of everyone in Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services is in that band, and gross receipts is the generous way of counting it.
That share is a floor, not an estimate: $10,000 is revenue, not earnings. Everyone counted inside it kept less than $10,000, and an unknown number of the filers above it also finished the year with nothing after costs.
What the spread tells you
From $4,071 to $32,644 is 8.0x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $10,818 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.
In cash terms the middle half of Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services runs $4,071 to $32,644 — $28,573 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $10,818.
Getting to $32,644, the 75th percentile, is worth $21,826 a year more than the $10,818 midpoint and $28,573 more than the $4,071 a quarter of Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services settle for.
$6,747 below the midpoint, $21,826 above it. That asymmetry is extreme even for this data, and it means every summary of Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services that is not a median — including any average you see quoted elsewhere — is describing the top of the range rather than the middle.
Spread across a 2,080-hour year those receipts come to $5.20 an hour at the midpoint, $1.95 at the 25th percentile and $15.69 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.
Straight from the Census bands for Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services: 18,272 filers under $5,000, 10,748 between $5,000 and $9,999, 13,472 between $10,000 and $24,999, 5,398 above $100,000 and 1,937 above $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 $10,818 midpoint for Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $10,818 salary.
The hourly number on this page is $10,818 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
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