Self-employment method
Landscaping Services
523,071 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 523,071 people who filed under this code in 2022, 40.12% 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 = 523,071 · 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 | 124,863 | 23.9% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 85,014 | 16.3% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 138,328 | 26.4% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 82,230 | 15.7% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 51,715 | 9.9% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 31,723 | 6.1% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 8,049 | 1.5% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 844 | 0.2% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 305 | 0.1% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $15,602 for the year — $1,300 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.
523,071 filings make this a crowded field. Crowding is not automatically bad, but it does mean the price of the work is set by whoever will do it cheapest.
40,799 people — 7.8% of filers — grossed $100,000 or more. At that share the upper tier is visible from inside the field, which usually means someone doing Landscaping Services locally can tell you what those people do differently.
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.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 523,071 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 Landscaping Services earns 7.2x the bottom quarter — under $5,347 against over $38,407, a spread of $33,060. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Landscaping Services earns under $5,347 — $44,673 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.
40.1% of the 523,071 people who filed in 2022 grossed under $10,000 for the year — 209,856 people. Approaching half of everyone who tried Landscaping Services 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
From $5,347 to $38,407 is 7.2x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $15,602 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.
Put in money rather than ratios: $5,347 at the 25th percentile, $15,602 at the midpoint, $38,407 at the 75th. $33,060 separates the quarter of Landscaping Services at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Between $5,347 and $38,407 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $15,602. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $22,805; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $33,060.
The upper half of the middle range — $15,602 to $38,407, or $22,805 — is far longer than the lower half at $10,255. In a shape like this an average would flatter Landscaping Services considerably, and would describe nobody.
Converted to a 2,080-hour year, the receipts run $2.57 an hour at the 25th percentile, $7.50 at the midpoint and $18.46 at the 75th. Read them as revenue per hour worked; the equivalent wage is lower by whatever this work costs to do.
Straight from the Census bands for Landscaping Services: 124,863 filers under $5,000, 85,014 between $5,000 and $9,999, 138,328 between $10,000 and $24,999, 40,921 above $100,000 and 9,198 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 $15,602 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $15,602 wage and should never be read as one.
The hourly number on this page is $15,602 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Landscaping 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