Self-employment method
Other Automotive Repair and Maintenance
92,860 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 92,860 people who filed under this code in 2022, 37.46% 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 = 92,860 · 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 | 21,297 | 22.9% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 13,488 | 14.5% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 23,031 | 24.8% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 14,374 | 15.5% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 10,038 | 10.8% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 7,198 | 7.8% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 2,378 | 2.6% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 820 | 0.9% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 236 | 0.3% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $17,584 for the year — $1,465 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 92,860 filers, Other Automotive Repair and Maintenance is a substantial informal workforce. Enough people do it that local pricing is set by the field rather than by you.
11.4% 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 repair and maintenance is the classic van, tools and phone number business, and suits people who can build a book of local customers by referral.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 92,860 people did. Free entry is why the lower bands are as full as they are: the distribution below counts everyone who tried, not everyone who was ready.
Who should not do this
8.0x between the quarters — $5,711 against $45,574, or $3,321 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 Other Automotive Repair and Maintenance earns under $5,711 — $44,309 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 customer base already forming; the van payment starts immediately and the referrals do not.
37.5% of the 92,860 people who filed in 2022 grossed under $10,000 for the year — 34,785 people. Approaching half of everyone who tried Other Automotive Repair and Maintenance took in less revenue than a part-time wage, before costs.
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 8.0x, the gap between $5,711 and $45,574 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $17,584 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: $5,711 at the 25th percentile, $17,584 at the midpoint, $45,574 at the 75th. $39,863 separates the quarter of Other Automotive Repair and Maintenance at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Between $5,711 and $45,574 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $17,584. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $27,990; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $39,863.
From $17,584 the drop to $5,711 is $11,873 and the climb to $45,574 is $27,990. When the upper half of the range is that much longer, the average is pulled well above the median — which is exactly why this site publishes the median.
Converted to a 2,080-hour year, the receipts run $2.74 an hour at the 25th percentile, $8.45 at the midpoint and $21.91 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: 21,297 filers grossed under $5,000, 13,488 took $5,000 to $9,999, 23,031 took $10,000 to $24,999, 10,632 cleared $100,000 and 3,434 cleared $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
These are GROSS RECEIPTS: everything that came in, before expenses. Rent, stock, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax all come out of the $17,584 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $17,584 wage and should never be read as one.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Other Automotive Repair and Maintenance, the hourly figure is $17,584 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