Self-employment method
Full-Service Restaurants
55,099 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 55,099 people who filed under this code in 2022, 35.41% 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 = 55,099 · 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 | 11,541 | 20.9% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 7,972 | 14.5% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 13,638 | 24.8% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 6,405 | 11.6% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 5,118 | 9.3% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 6,481 | 11.8% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 3,160 | 5.7% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 784 | 1.4% |
Who this suits
Median gross receipts of $18,839 put the typical filer somewhere between a serious side income and a failing attempt at a full-time one, and the receipts figure alone cannot tell you which.
With 55,099 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.
18.9% 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 food service suits people who can control food cost, labour cost and rent simultaneously — miss any one and the other two stop mattering.
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
Bottom quarter under $6,401, top quarter over $67,275: 10.5x, or $5,072 a month. At this stretch the label has stopped describing one occupation, and every summary statistic about it — including the midpoint — should be treated with suspicion.
The bottom quarter of Full-Service Restaurants earns under $6,401 — $43,619 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 working in someone else’s operation first. Food margins punish inexperience faster than any other subsector here.
35.4% of the 55,099 people who filed in 2022 grossed under $10,000 for the year — 19,510 people. Approaching half of everyone who tried Full-Service Restaurants took in less revenue 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
At 10.5x, the gap between $6,401 and $67,275 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $18,839 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 Full-Service Restaurants runs $6,401 to $67,275 — $60,874 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $18,839.
Between $6,401 and $67,275 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $18,839. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $48,436; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $60,874.
The top quarter of Full-Service Restaurants begins $48,436 above the $18,839 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $12,438 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.
Converted to a 2,080-hour year, the receipts run $3.07 an hour at the 25th percentile, $9.05 at the midpoint and $32.34 at the 75th. Read them as revenue per hour worked; the equivalent wage is lower by whatever this work costs to do.
Counted straight off the return: 11,541 filers grossed under $5,000, 7,972 took $5,000 to $9,999, 13,638 took $10,000 to $24,999, 10,425 cleared $100,000 and 3,944 cleared $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Read every figure here as GROSS RECEIPTS rather than income. $18,839 is turnover — the money that passed through Full-Service Restaurants before expenses. What is left after costs is a different and much smaller number that this dataset does not publish.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Full-Service Restaurants, the hourly figure is $18,839 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