Self-employment method
Other Personal Care Services
188,618 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 188,618 people who filed under this code in 2022, 34.10% 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 = 188,618 · 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 | 35,845 | 19.0% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 28,482 | 15.1% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 57,946 | 30.7% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 34,965 | 18.5% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 20,380 | 10.8% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 8,654 | 4.6% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 1,801 | 1.0% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 462 | 0.2% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 83 | 0.0% |
Who this suits
Median gross receipts of $17,761 put the typical filer somewhere between a serious side income and a failing attempt at a full-time one, and the receipts figure alone cannot tell you which.
188,618 people filed under this code. A field that large has a settled price, a settled set of expectations, and no shortage of people willing to meet both.
5.8% cleared $100,000 in receipts. That is a meaningful upper tier and it is worth asking what separates them, because it is rarely effort alone.
This work suits people who are good at keeping a client for years rather than winning one once, because the retention is the business.
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 $6,985, top quarter over $38,721: 5.5x, or $2,644 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 Personal Care Services earns under $6,985 — $43,035 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 on a lease you cannot cover from existing clients; the empty first months are the ones that end it.
64,318 filers out of 188,618 — 34.1% — reported under $10,000 in gross receipts in 2022. At that share the bottom band is not a warning about beginners; it is a description of a large part of the field.
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 5.5x, the gap between $6,985 and $38,721 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $17,761 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: $6,985 at the 25th percentile, $17,761 at the midpoint, $38,721 at the 75th. $31,736 separates the quarter of Other Personal Care Services at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Getting to $38,721, the 75th percentile, is worth $20,960 a year more than the $17,761 midpoint and $31,736 more than the $6,985 a quarter of Other Personal Care Services settle for.
The upper half of the middle range — $17,761 to $38,721, or $20,960 — is far longer than the lower half at $10,776. In a shape like this an average would flatter Other Personal Care Services considerably, and would describe nobody.
Spread across a 2,080-hour year those receipts come to $8.53 an hour at the midpoint, $3.35 at the 25th percentile and $18.61 at the 75th. That is turnover per hour, not pay per hour, and it is not comparable with the $24.04 an hour a typical American job pays.
Counted straight off the return: 35,845 filers grossed under $5,000, 28,482 took $5,000 to $9,999, 57,946 took $10,000 to $24,999, 11,000 cleared $100,000 and 2,346 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 $17,761 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $17,761 wage and should never be read as one.
The hourly number on this page is $17,761 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Other Personal Care Services, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else