Self-employment method
Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies Retailers
21,557 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 21,557 people who filed under this code in 2022, 45.85% 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 = 21,557 · 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 | 6,421 | 29.8% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 3,462 | 16.1% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 5,288 | 24.6% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 2,546 | 11.8% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 1,552 | 7.2% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 1,236 | 5.7% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 545 | 2.5% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 289 | 1.3% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 172 | 0.8% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $12,475 for the year — $1,039 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.
21,557 people filed under this code, almost none of whom appear in any employment statistic. Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies Retailers is part of the economy salary surveys simply do not see.
10.4% of filers grossed $100,000 or more. That is a substantial upper tier by the standards of this dataset — the difference between a full operation and an occasional one is visible in the distribution rather than only in the anecdotes.
Independent building and garden supply retail suits people serving trade customers as much as households, because the repeat trade account is what makes the year.
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
The top quarter of Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies Retailers earns 8.2x the bottom quarter — under $4,188 against over $34,449, a spread of $30,261. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies Retailers earns under $4,188 — $45,832 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 if your capital is all going into stock. Unsold inventory is the standard failure mode here.
45.8% of 21,557 filers in 2022 took under $10,000 across the entire year: 9,883 people. Close to half of everyone in Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies Retailers 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
At 8.2x, the gap between $4,188 and $34,449 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $12,475 is real and it is not a forecast — the people quoting the upper end at you are describing a minority.
The middle half of this field earns between $4,188 and $34,449. That is $30,261 of range, with $12,475 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Between $4,188 and $34,449 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $12,475. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $21,974; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $30,261.
The top quarter of Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies Retailers begins $21,974 above the $12,475 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $8,287 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.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies Retailers takes $5.99 in revenue — $2.01 at the bottom quarter and $16.56 at the top. Costs have not been deducted from any of those figures, so none of them is an hourly wage.
Counted straight off the return: 6,421 filers grossed under $5,000, 3,462 took $5,000 to $9,999, 5,288 took $10,000 to $24,999, 2,242 cleared $100,000 and 1,006 cleared $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 $12,475 midpoint for Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies Retailers is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $12,475 salary.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $12,475 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