Self-employment method
Facilities Support Services
29,506 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 29,506 people who filed under this code in 2022, 41.73% 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 = 29,506 · 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 | 7,301 | 24.7% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 5,011 | 17.0% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 7,686 | 26.0% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 4,483 | 15.2% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 2,724 | 9.2% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 1,584 | 5.4% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 460 | 1.6% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 193 | 0.7% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 64 | 0.2% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $14,764 for the year — $1,230 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.
29,506 people filed under this code, almost none of whom appear in any employment statistic. Facilities Support Services is part of the economy salary surveys simply do not see.
7.8% cleared $100,000 in receipts. That is a meaningful upper tier and it is worth asking what separates them, because it is rarely effort alone.
Administrative and support services suit people who can win recurring contracts rather than one-off jobs, because the whole economics turn on route density and repeat work.
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
The top quarter of Facilities Support Services earns 7.3x the bottom quarter — under $5,075 against over $36,887, a spread of $31,812. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Facilities Support Services earns under $5,075 — $44,945 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 on one-off jobs. Without recurring contracts the acquisition cost eats the margin every time.
12,312 filers out of 29,506 — 41.7% — reported under $10,000 in gross receipts in 2022. At that share the bottom band is not a warning about beginners; it is a description of a large part of the field.
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 7.3x, the gap between $5,075 and $36,887 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $14,764 is real and it is not a forecast — the people quoting the upper end at you are describing a minority.
In cash terms the middle half of Facilities Support Services runs $5,075 to $36,887 — $31,812 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $14,764.
Getting to $36,887, the 75th percentile, is worth $22,123 a year more than the $14,764 midpoint and $31,812 more than the $5,075 a quarter of Facilities Support Services settle for.
From $14,764 the drop to $5,075 is $9,689 and the climb to $36,887 is $22,123. 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 $7.09 an hour at the midpoint, $2.43 at the 25th percentile and $17.73 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.
The raw counts, before anyone interprets them: under $5,000, 7,301 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 5,011. $10,000 to $24,999, 7,686. Over $100,000, 2,301 — and 717 over $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 $14,764 midpoint for Facilities Support Services is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $14,764 salary.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $14,764 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