Self-employment method
Other ambulatory health care services
57,807 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 57,807 people who filed under this code in 2022, 49.75% 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 = 57,807 · 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 | 19,753 | 34.2% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 9,004 | 15.6% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 11,769 | 20.4% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 7,495 | 13.0% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 5,212 | 9.0% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 3,592 | 6.2% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 764 | 1.3% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 145 | 0.3% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 73 | 0.1% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $10,187 for the year — $848 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.
57,807 people filed under this code. That is enough that Other ambulatory health care services has a going local rate in most places, and enough that you will be quoted against someone else.
4,566 people — 7.9% of filers — grossed $100,000 or more. At that share the upper tier is visible from inside the field, which usually means someone doing Other ambulatory health care services locally can tell you what those people do differently.
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 Other ambulatory health care services earns 9.4x the bottom quarter — under $3,658 against over $34,437, a spread of $30,779. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Other ambulatory health care services earns under $3,658 — $46,362 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 understanding reimbursement timelines. Being owed money by a payer is not the same as being paid.
49.8% of 57,807 filers in 2022 took under $10,000 across the entire year: 28,758 people. Close to half of everyone in Other ambulatory health care services is in that band, and gross receipts is the generous way of counting it.
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
A ratio of 9.4x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $10,187 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Other ambulatory health care services should plan around it.
The middle half of this field earns between $3,658 and $34,437. That is $30,779 of range, with $10,187 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Between $3,658 and $34,437 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $10,187. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $24,250; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $30,779.
The top quarter of Other ambulatory health care services begins $24,250 above the $10,187 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $6,529 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 Other ambulatory health care services takes $4.89 in revenue — $1.75 at the bottom quarter and $16.55 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: 19,753 filers grossed under $5,000, 9,004 took $5,000 to $9,999, 11,769 took $10,000 to $24,999, 4,574 cleared $100,000 and 982 cleared $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Read every figure here as GROSS RECEIPTS rather than income. $10,187 is turnover — the money that passed through Other ambulatory health care services before expenses. What is left after costs is a different and much smaller number that this dataset does not publish.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Other ambulatory health care services, the hourly figure is $10,187 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else