Self-employment method
Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists)
184,782 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 184,782 people who filed under this code in 2022, 28.74% 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 = 184,782 · 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 | 31,414 | 17.0% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 21,687 | 11.7% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 33,572 | 18.2% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 26,876 | 14.5% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 25,335 | 13.7% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 26,052 | 14.1% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 13,600 | 7.4% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 5,192 | 2.8% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 1,054 | 0.6% |
Who this suits
At a $30,319 median in gross receipts, the typical person under this code is running a real but part-time operation. Full-time equivalence would require roughly triple this before costs.
With 184,782 filers, Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists) is a substantial informal workforce. Enough people do it that local pricing is set by the field rather than by you.
45,825 filers, 24.8% of the total, took $100,000 or more in receipts. Read the size of that group as evidence about turnover in Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists) rather than about income: the costs scale with it.
This suits people prepared to be responsible for both the clinical standard and the cash position, in a field where the payer decides when you get either.
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
11.8x between the quarters — $8,408 against $99,413, or $7,583 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 Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists) earns under $8,408 — $41,612 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.
28.7% — 53,106 of the 184,782 filers in 2022 — grossed under $10,000 for the year. That is not the tail of the distribution, it is a third of it, and it is measured before any expense came out.
Take it as a floor, not an estimate. The $10,000 threshold is measured on money received, before materials, rent, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax, so the true share of filers who ended the year with no income is higher than the figure shown — we simply cannot say how much higher.
What the spread tells you
At 11.8x, the gap between $8,408 and $99,413 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $30,319 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 Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists) runs $8,408 to $99,413 — $91,005 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $30,319.
Between $8,408 and $99,413 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $30,319. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $69,094; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $91,005.
The top quarter of Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists) begins $69,094 above the $30,319 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $21,911 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 Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists) takes $14.57 in revenue — $4.04 at the bottom quarter and $47.79 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: 31,414 filers grossed under $5,000, 21,687 took $5,000 to $9,999, 33,572 took $10,000 to $24,999, 45,898 cleared $100,000 and 19,846 cleared $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Read every figure here as GROSS RECEIPTS rather than income. $30,319 is turnover — the money that passed through Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists) before expenses. What is left after costs is a different and much smaller number that this dataset does not publish.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $30,319 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