Self-employment method
Individual and Family Services
190,246 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 190,246 people who filed under this code in 2022, 39.81% 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 = 190,246 · 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 | 43,896 | 23.1% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 31,838 | 16.7% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 49,673 | 26.1% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 30,067 | 15.8% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 23,005 | 12.1% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 10,162 | 5.3% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 1,338 | 0.7% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 184 | 0.1% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 83 | 0.0% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $15,855 for the year — $1,321 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.
190,246 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.
11,795 people — 6.2% of filers — grossed $100,000 or more. At that share the upper tier is visible from inside the field, which usually means someone doing Individual and Family Services locally can tell you what those people do differently.
Independent social assistance work suits people who can operate on public and grant funding, where the contract terms decide the business more than the demand does.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 190,246 people did. Free entry is why the lower bands are as full as they are: the distribution below counts everyone who tried, not everyone who was ready.
Who should not do this
7.1x between the quarters — $5,576 against $39,366, or $2,815 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 Individual and Family Services earns under $5,576 — $44,444 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 dependent on a single grant or contract cycle you have no influence over.
39.8% of the 190,246 people who filed in 2022 grossed under $10,000 for the year — 75,736 people. Approaching half of everyone who tried Individual and Family Services took in less revenue than a part-time wage, before costs.
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
At 7.1x, the gap between $5,576 and $39,366 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $15,855 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 Individual and Family Services runs $5,576 to $39,366 — $33,790 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $15,855.
Between $5,576 and $39,366 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $15,855. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $23,511; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $33,790.
From $15,855 the drop to $5,576 is $10,279 and the climb to $39,366 is $23,511. 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.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Individual and Family Services takes $7.62 in revenue — $2.68 at the bottom quarter and $18.92 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 Individual and Family Services: 43,896 filers under $5,000, 31,838 between $5,000 and $9,999, 49,673 between $10,000 and $24,999, 11,767 above $100,000 and 1,605 above $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Read every figure here as GROSS RECEIPTS rather than income. $15,855 is turnover — the money that passed through Individual and Family Services before expenses. What is left after costs is a different and much smaller number that this dataset does not publish.
The hourly number on this page is $15,855 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Individual and Family 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