Self-employment method
Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings
141,015 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 141,015 people who filed under this code in 2022, 39.14% 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 = 141,015 · 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 | 31,760 | 22.5% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 23,431 | 16.6% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 37,001 | 26.2% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 21,406 | 15.2% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 14,566 | 10.3% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 9,443 | 6.7% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 2,505 | 1.8% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 758 | 0.5% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 145 | 0.1% |
Who this suits
Median gross receipts of $16,209 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.
141,015 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.
12,832 filers cleared $100,000, which is 9.1% of everyone under this code. A share that size means Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings supports a genuine professional tier, and the question becomes what puts someone in it.
Independent support services suit people who can sell a contract rather than a job, and who are organised enough to deliver one consistently.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 141,015 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
The top quarter of Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings earns 7.1x the bottom quarter — under $5,746 against over $40,847, a spread of $35,101. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings earns under $5,746 — $44,274 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 costing your travel time. Between-job time is unpaid and it is what quietly destroys the hourly rate.
39.1% of the 141,015 people who filed in 2022 grossed under $10,000 for the year — 55,193 people. Approaching half of everyone who tried Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings took in less revenue 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 7.1x, the gap between $5,746 and $40,847 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $16,209 is real and it is not a forecast — the people quoting the upper end at you are describing a minority.
In cash terms the middle half of Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings runs $5,746 to $40,847 — $35,101 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $16,209.
Getting to $40,847, the 75th percentile, is worth $24,638 a year more than the $16,209 midpoint and $35,101 more than the $5,746 a quarter of Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings settle for.
The upper half of the middle range — $16,209 to $40,847, or $24,638 — is far longer than the lower half at $10,463. In a shape like this an average would flatter Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings considerably, and would describe nobody.
Converted to a 2,080-hour year, the receipts run $2.76 an hour at the 25th percentile, $7.79 at the midpoint and $19.63 at the 75th. Read them as revenue per hour worked; the equivalent wage is lower by whatever this work costs to do.
The raw counts, before anyone interprets them: under $5,000, 31,760 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 23,431. $10,000 to $24,999, 37,001. Over $100,000, 12,851 — and 3,408 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 $16,209 midpoint for Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $16,209 salary.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $16,209 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