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 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 | 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
The median filer grossed $29,460, or $2,455 a month before expenses. That is an operating business at part-time scale: enough revenue to be worth running properly, not enough to be the only thing in the household.
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. At that share the upper band is not an exception, it is a large minority of the field — though gross receipts at this level usually carry proportionate costs.
Specialty trade contracting suits people who can price a job accurately, because the whole margin lives in the estimate rather than in the work.
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
11.1x between the quarters — $8,394 against $93,456, or $7,088 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 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 most common way people in this trade work a full year for nothing.
Of 172,841 filers in 2022, 28.4% took under $10,000 across the whole year in gross receipts: 49,052 people. Whatever the working version of Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors looks like, a third or more never reach it.
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 11.1x, the gap between $8,394 and $93,456 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $29,460 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: $8,394 at the 25th percentile, $29,460 at the midpoint, $93,456 at the 75th. $85,062 separates the quarter of Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
The 75th percentile is $93,456. Reaching it from the $29,460 midpoint is $63,996 a year; reaching it from the $8,394 that the bottom quarter of Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors earn is $85,062.
The top quarter of Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors begins $63,996 above the $29,460 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $21,066 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.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors takes $14.16 in revenue — $4.03 at the bottom quarter and $44.93 at the top. Costs have not been deducted from any of those figures, so none of them is an hourly wage.
Straight from the Census bands for Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors: 30,872 filers under $5,000, 18,177 between $5,000 and $9,999, 32,607 between $10,000 and $24,999, 40,007 above $100,000 and 14,051 above $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 $29,460 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $29,460 wage and should never be read as one.
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 · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else