Self-employment method
Other Amusement and Recreation Industries
140,432 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 140,432 people who filed under this code in 2022, 48.09% 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 = 140,432 · 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 | 44,586 | 31.7% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 22,948 | 16.3% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 26,960 | 19.2% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 17,242 | 12.3% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 13,299 | 9.5% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 10,239 | 7.3% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 3,379 | 2.4% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 1,428 | 1.0% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 351 | 0.2% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $11,492 for the year — $957 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.
With 140,432 filers, Other Amusement and Recreation Industries is a substantial informal workforce. Enough people do it that local pricing is set by the field rather than by you.
11.0% 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 amusement and recreation work suits people who can run a season hard and bank it, since the calendar rather than the market caps 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
Bottom quarter under $3,937, top quarter over $40,703: 10.3x, or $3,063 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 Other Amusement and Recreation Industries earns under $3,937 — $46,083 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 banking the season; the off months have the same fixed costs and none of the revenue.
48.1% of 140,432 filers in 2022 took under $10,000 across the entire year: 67,533 people. Close to half of everyone in Other Amusement and Recreation Industries 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 10.3x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $11,492 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Other Amusement and Recreation Industries should plan around it.
Put in money rather than ratios: $3,937 at the 25th percentile, $11,492 at the midpoint, $40,703 at the 75th. $36,766 separates the quarter of Other Amusement and Recreation Industries at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Between $3,937 and $40,703 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $11,492. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $29,211; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $36,766.
The top quarter of Other Amusement and Recreation Industries begins $29,211 above the $11,492 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $7,555 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.
Converted to a 2,080-hour year, the receipts run $1.89 an hour at the 25th percentile, $5.52 at the midpoint and $19.56 at the 75th. Read them as revenue per hour worked; the equivalent wage is lower by whatever this work costs to do.
Counted straight off the return: 44,586 filers grossed under $5,000, 22,948 took $5,000 to $9,999, 26,960 took $10,000 to $24,999, 15,397 cleared $100,000 and 5,158 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 $11,492 midpoint for Other Amusement and Recreation Industries is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $11,492 salary.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $11,492 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