Self-employment method
Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors
172,841 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 172,841 people who filed under this code in 2022, 28.38% 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 = 172,841 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full receipts distribution as Census publishes it. The median above is interpolated inside whichever band contains the 50th percentile, so this table is what that figure is derived from.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 30,872 | 17.9% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 18,177 | 10.5% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 32,607 | 18.9% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 26,704 | 15.5% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 24,473 | 14.2% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 25,956 | 15.0% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 10,542 | 6.1% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 3,509 | 2.0% |
Who this suits
At a $29,460 median in gross receipts, the typical person under this code is running a real but part-time operation. Full-time equivalence would require roughly triple this before costs.
With 172,841 filers, Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors is a substantial informal workforce. Enough people do it that local pricing is set by the field rather than by you.
23.1% of filers grossed $100,000 or more, which is high for this dataset. A substantial share of this field is running an actual business rather than an occasional one.
Going independent in construction converts a wage into a bid. It suits people who can price a job accurately, because the whole margin lives in the estimate rather than in the work.
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 Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors earns 11.1x the bottom quarter — under $8,394 against over $93,456, a spread of $85,062. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors earns under $8,394 — $41,626 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 if you have never priced a job. Underbidding is the single most common way people in this sector work a full year for nothing.
28.4% of the 172,841 Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors filings in 2022 reported under $10,000 in gross receipts for the year — 49,052 people who took in less than a part-time wage before costs.
Read that as a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes gross receipts, not net income, so everyone inside that share earned less than $10,000 suggests once costs came out — and filers who grossed well above $10,000 may still have netted nothing.
What the spread tells you
A ratio of 11.1x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $29,460 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors should plan around it.
In cash terms the middle half of Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors runs $8,394 to $93,456 — $85,062 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $29,460.
Getting to $93,456, the 75th percentile, is worth $63,996 a year more than the $29,460 midpoint and $85,062 more than the $8,394 a quarter of Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors settle for.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $14.16 at the midpoint for Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors, $4.03 at the 25th percentile and $44.93 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
Counted straight off the return: 30,872 filers grossed under $5,000, 18,177 took $5,000 to $9,999, 32,607 took $10,000 to $24,999, 40,007 cleared $100,000 and 14,051 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 $29,460 midpoint for Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $29,460 salary.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors, the hourly figure is $29,460 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · Look up something else