Self-employment method
Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories
20,840 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 20,840 people who filed under this code in 2022, 38.99% 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 = 20,840 · 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 | 4,923 | 23.6% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 3,202 | 15.4% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 4,432 | 21.3% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 3,072 | 14.7% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 2,327 | 11.2% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 1,838 | 8.8% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 580 | 2.8% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 306 | 1.5% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 160 | 0.8% |
Who this suits
Median gross receipts of $17,767 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.
20,840 filings sit behind this code — a workforce the size of a mid-sized occupation that no payroll survey counts, because none of it runs through a payroll.
A 13.8% share — 2,875 filers — grossed $100,000 or more. That is well above what most codes here manage, and it says the middle of Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories is closer to a business than to a sideline.
Independent ambulatory care is licensed, insured and reimbursement-driven; it suits people who can run the billing side as seriously as the clinical side.
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 Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories earns 9.2x the bottom quarter — under $5,448 against over $50,021, a spread of $44,573. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories earns under $5,448 — $44,572 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 assuming billed equals paid. The difference between the two is the working capital you will need.
8,125 filers out of 20,840 — 39.0% — reported under $10,000 in gross receipts in 2022. At that share the bottom band is not a warning about beginners; it is a description of a large part of the field.
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 9.2x, the gap between $5,448 and $50,021 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $17,767 is real and it is not a forecast — the people quoting the upper end at you are describing a minority.
Put in money rather than ratios: $5,448 at the 25th percentile, $17,767 at the midpoint, $50,021 at the 75th. $44,573 separates the quarter of Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
The 75th percentile is $50,021. Reaching it from the $17,767 midpoint is $32,254 a year; reaching it from the $5,448 that the bottom quarter of Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories earn is $44,573.
$12,319 below the midpoint, $32,254 above it. That asymmetry is extreme even for this data, and it means every summary of Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories that is not a median — including any average you see quoted elsewhere — is describing the top of the range rather than the middle.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories takes $8.54 in revenue — $2.61 at the bottom quarter and $24.04 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: 4,923 filers grossed under $5,000, 3,202 took $5,000 to $9,999, 4,432 took $10,000 to $24,999, 2,884 cleared $100,000 and 1,046 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 $17,767 midpoint for Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $17,767 salary.
The hourly number on this page is $17,767 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories, 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