Self-employment method
Residential Building Construction
813,440 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 813,440 people who filed under this code in 2022, 24.52% 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 = 813,440 · 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 | 114,776 | 14.1% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 84,640 | 10.4% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 186,576 | 22.9% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 149,399 | 18.4% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 112,287 | 13.8% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 87,540 | 10.8% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 39,872 | 4.9% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 23,589 | 2.9% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 14,755 | 1.8% |
Who this suits
At a $28,468 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.
813,440 filings under one code. That is a population the size of a large occupation with none of a large occupation’s structure: no employer, no schedule, no floor. The distribution below is what that produces.
165,941 filers, 20.4% of the total, took $100,000 or more in receipts. Read the size of that group as evidence about turnover in Residential Building Construction rather than about income: the costs scale with it.
Independent building construction suits people who can carry a project financially between draws, because the money arrives well behind the work every time.
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
8.1x between the quarters — $10,317 against $83,256, or $6,078 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 Residential Building Construction earns under $10,317 — $39,703 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 working capital for the draw schedule; being owed money by a developer is the standard failure here.
24.5% of the 813,440 Residential Building Construction filings in 2022 reported under $10,000 in gross receipts for the year — 199,455 people who took in less 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
A ratio of 8.1x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $28,468 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Residential Building Construction should plan around it.
Put in money rather than ratios: $10,317 at the 25th percentile, $28,468 at the midpoint, $83,256 at the 75th. $72,939 separates the quarter of Residential Building Construction at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Between $10,317 and $83,256 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $28,468. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $54,788; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $72,939.
The top quarter of Residential Building Construction begins $54,788 above the $28,468 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $18,151 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.
Spread across a 2,080-hour year those receipts come to $13.68 an hour at the midpoint, $4.96 at the 25th percentile and $40.02 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.
Straight from the Census bands for Residential Building Construction: 114,776 filers under $5,000, 84,640 between $5,000 and $9,999, 186,576 between $10,000 and $24,999, 165,756 above $100,000 and 78,216 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 $28,468 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $28,468 wage and should never be read as one.
The hourly number on this page is $28,468 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Residential Building Construction, 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