Self-employment method
Janitorial Services
1,045,769 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 1,045,769 people who filed under this code in 2022, 42.37% 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 = 1,045,769 · 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 | 229,556 | 22.0% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 213,513 | 20.4% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 404,252 | 38.7% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 127,351 | 12.2% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 46,137 | 4.4% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 19,779 | 1.9% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 4,328 | 0.4% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 602 | 0.1% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 251 | 0.0% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $12,962 for the year — $1,080 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.
1,045,769 people filed under this code — the scale of a major occupation, held together by nothing but tax returns. Very few are doing it full time, and the receipts distribution below is the evidence.
The share clearing $100,000 in receipts is 2.4%. That is roughly one filer in forty, which is the honest denominator behind any story you have read about doing Janitorial Services full time.
This work suits people who can build a route or a roster of regular clients, because the second visit is where the margin in this subsector actually lives.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 1,045,769 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
The top quarter of Janitorial Services earns 3.9x the bottom quarter — under $5,747 against over $22,663, a spread of $16,916. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Janitorial Services earns under $5,747 — $44,273 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 large client; contract services concentrate fast and the loss of one ends the year.
42.4% of 1,045,769 filers in 2022 took under $10,000 across the entire year: 443,092 people. Close to half of everyone in Janitorial Services is in that band, and gross receipts is the generous way of counting it.
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 $5,747 to $22,663 is 3.9x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $12,962 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.
Put in money rather than ratios: $5,747 at the 25th percentile, $12,962 at the midpoint, $22,663 at the 75th. $16,916 separates the quarter of Janitorial Services at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Between $5,747 and $22,663 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $12,962. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $9,701; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $16,916.
The climb from $12,962 to $22,663 is $9,701; the drop to $5,747 is $7,215. A little more room above the midpoint than below it is the normal shape for Janitorial Services and for most paid work, and it is the reason the median is the honest summary rather than the average.
Converted to a 2,080-hour year, the receipts run $2.76 an hour at the 25th percentile, $6.23 at the midpoint and $10.89 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: 229,556 filers grossed under $5,000, 213,513 took $5,000 to $9,999, 404,252 took $10,000 to $24,999, 24,960 cleared $100,000 and 5,181 cleared $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Read every figure here as GROSS RECEIPTS rather than income. $12,962 is turnover — the money that passed through Janitorial 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 $12,962 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Janitorial 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