Self-employment method
Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers
868,344 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 868,344 people who filed under this code in 2022, 22.45% 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 = 868,344 · 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 | 92,697 | 10.7% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 102,263 | 11.8% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 191,766 | 22.1% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 161,396 | 18.6% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 148,663 | 17.1% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 122,957 | 14.2% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 34,599 | 4.0% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 11,410 | 1.3% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 2,593 | 0.3% |
Who this suits
The median filer grossed $32,349, or $2,695 a month before expenses. That is an operating business at part-time scale: enough revenue to be worth running properly, not enough to be the only thing in the household.
868,344 filings under one code. That is a population the size of a large occupation with none of a large occupation’s structure: no employer, no schedule, no floor. The distribution below is what that produces.
19.8% of filers grossed $100,000 or more, which is high for this dataset. A substantial share of this field is running an actual business rather than an occasional one.
This work suits people who can prospect continuously through a market cycle they do not control, and who treat the quiet year as part of the model.
There is no qualification, licence or minimum to appear in this data — you file and you are counted. Read the receipts distribution as the price of that: no barrier at the door means no filter before the numbers.
Who should not do this
Bottom quarter under $11,731, top quarter over $84,688: 7.2x, or $6,079 a month. At this stretch the label has stopped describing one occupation, and every summary statistic about it — including the midpoint — should be treated with suspicion.
The bottom quarter of Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers earns under $11,731 — $38,289 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 without a full year of expenses banked; the ramp is longer than almost everyone expects.
22.4% of the 868,344 Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers filings in 2022 reported under $10,000 in gross receipts for the year — 194,943 people who took in less than a part-time wage before costs.
That share is a floor, not an estimate: $10,000 is revenue, not earnings. Everyone counted inside it kept less than $10,000, and an unknown number of the filers above it also finished the year with nothing after costs.
What the spread tells you
At 7.2x, the gap between $11,731 and $84,688 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $32,349 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: $11,731 at the 25th percentile, $32,349 at the midpoint, $84,688 at the 75th. $72,957 separates the quarter of Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
The 75th percentile is $84,688. Reaching it from the $32,349 midpoint is $52,339 a year; reaching it from the $11,731 that the bottom quarter of Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers earn is $72,957.
The upper half of the middle range — $32,349 to $84,688, or $52,339 — is far longer than the lower half at $20,618. In a shape like this an average would flatter Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers considerably, and would describe nobody.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers takes $15.55 in revenue — $5.63 at the bottom quarter and $40.71 at the top. Costs have not been deducted from any of those figures, so none of them is an hourly wage.
The raw counts, before anyone interprets them: under $5,000, 92,697 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 102,263. $10,000 to $24,999, 191,766. Over $100,000, 171,559 — and 48,602 over $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 $32,349 midpoint for Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $32,349 salary.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $32,349 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