Self-employment method
Exterminating and Pest Control Services
15,908 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 15,908 people who filed under this code in 2022, 25.43% 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 = 15,908 · 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 | 2,232 | 14.0% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 1,813 | 11.4% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 3,460 | 21.8% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 3,076 | 19.3% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 3,068 | 19.3% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 1,899 | 11.9% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 271 | 1.7% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 50 | 0.3% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 39 | 0.2% |
Who this suits
At a $28,649 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.
15,908 people filed under this code — enough that the work exists everywhere and not enough that it supports a visible trade. Most people doing Exterminating and Pest Control Services are doing it alongside something else.
14.2% 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.
Independent support services suit people who can sell a contract rather than a job, and who are organised enough to deliver one consistently.
There is no qualification, licence or minimum to appear in this data — you file and you are counted. Read the receipts distribution as the price of that: no barrier at the door means no filter before the numbers.
Who should not do this
7.3x between the quarters — $9,812 against $72,001, or $5,182 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 Exterminating and Pest Control Services earns under $9,812 — $40,208 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 costing your travel time. Between-job time is unpaid and it is what quietly destroys the hourly rate.
4,045 of the 15,908 people filing in 2022 grossed under $10,000 across twelve months — 25.4% of the field. A quarter or more of everyone in Exterminating and Pest Control Services took in less revenue than a part-time job would have paid in wages.
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
From $9,812 to $72,001 is 7.3x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $28,649 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.
In cash terms the middle half of Exterminating and Pest Control Services runs $9,812 to $72,001 — $62,189 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $28,649.
Getting to $72,001, the 75th percentile, is worth $43,352 a year more than the $28,649 midpoint and $62,189 more than the $9,812 a quarter of Exterminating and Pest Control Services settle for.
The upper half of the middle range — $28,649 to $72,001, or $43,352 — is far longer than the lower half at $18,837. In a shape like this an average would flatter Exterminating and Pest Control Services considerably, and would describe nobody.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Exterminating and Pest Control Services takes $13.77 in revenue — $4.71 at the bottom quarter and $34.61 at the top. Costs have not been deducted from any of those figures, so none of them is an hourly wage.
Straight from the Census bands for Exterminating and Pest Control Services: 2,232 filers under $5,000, 1,813 between $5,000 and $9,999, 3,460 between $10,000 and $24,999, 2,259 above $100,000 and 360 above $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 $28,649 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $28,649 wage and should never be read as one.
The hourly number on this page is $28,649 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Exterminating and Pest Control Services, 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