Self-employment method
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors
151,620 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 151,620 people who filed under this code in 2022, 35.11% 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 = 151,620 · 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 | 34,191 | 22.6% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 19,041 | 12.6% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 30,640 | 20.2% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 24,266 | 16.0% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 19,581 | 12.9% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 16,597 | 10.9% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 5,415 | 3.6% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 1,887 | 1.2% |
Who this suits
At a $21,053 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.
151,620 people filed under this code. A field that large has a settled price, a settled set of expectations, and no shortage of people willing to meet both.
15.8% 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 a specialty trade converts a wage into a bid, and suits people who can estimate, schedule and chase payment as well as they can do 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 Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors earns 10.8x the bottom quarter — under $5,975 against over $64,237, a spread of $58,262. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors earns under $5,975 — $44,045 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 most common way people in this trade work a full year for nothing.
35.1% of the 151,620 people who filed in 2022 grossed under $10,000 for the year — 53,233 people. Approaching half of everyone who tried Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors took in less revenue than a part-time wage, before costs.
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 $5,975 to $64,237 is 10.8x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $21,053 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.
The middle half of this field earns between $5,975 and $64,237. That is $58,262 of range, with $21,053 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Getting to $64,237, the 75th percentile, is worth $43,184 a year more than the $21,053 midpoint and $58,262 more than the $5,975 a quarter of Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors settle for.
The top quarter of Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors begins $43,184 above the $21,053 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $15,078 below it. A range stretched that far in one direction is the signature of a field where a small group earns a great deal more than the middle does.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors takes $10.12 in revenue — $2.87 at the bottom quarter and $30.88 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: 34,191 filers grossed under $5,000, 19,041 took $5,000 to $9,999, 30,640 took $10,000 to $24,999, 23,899 cleared $100,000 and 7,302 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 $21,053 midpoint for Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $21,053 salary.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors, the hourly figure is $21,053 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else