Rooming and Boarding Houses, Dormitories, and Workers' Camps

At the midpoint this work grossed $15,502 for the year — $1,291 a month in revenue. That is a real second income and a long way short of a first one, and Census cannot tell you which of those the typical filer intended.

At 19,231 filers this is a real but thin national population. There is no established price for Rooming and Boarding Houses, Dormitories, and Workers' Camps at this scale, which cuts both ways: nothing anchors you low and nothing anchors you high.

6.5% 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.

Independent accommodation suits people who own or control the property, because the return is on the asset far more than on the hospitality.

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.

The top quarter of Rooming and Boarding Houses, Dormitories, and Workers' Camps earns 5.2x the bottom quarter — under $6,347 against over $33,078, a spread of $26,731. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.

The bottom quarter of Rooming and Boarding Houses, Dormitories, and Workers' Camps earns under $6,347 — $43,673 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 mortgage that assumes peak occupancy, and check what the local rules actually permit before you buy.

38.4% of the 19,231 people who filed in 2022 grossed under $10,000 for the year — 7,375 people. Approaching half of everyone who tried Rooming and Boarding Houses, Dormitories, and Workers' Camps took in less revenue than a part-time wage, before costs.

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.

A ratio of 5.2x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $15,502 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Rooming and Boarding Houses, Dormitories, and Workers' Camps should plan around it.

The middle half of this field earns between $6,347 and $33,078. That is $26,731 of range, with $15,502 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.

Getting to $33,078, the 75th percentile, is worth $17,576 a year more than the $15,502 midpoint and $26,731 more than the $6,347 a quarter of Rooming and Boarding Houses, Dormitories, and Workers' Camps settle for.

The upper half of the middle range — $15,502 to $33,078, or $17,576 — is far longer than the lower half at $9,155. In a shape like this an average would flatter Rooming and Boarding Houses, Dormitories, and Workers' Camps considerably, and would describe nobody.

Spread across a 2,080-hour year those receipts come to $7.45 an hour at the midpoint, $3.05 at the 25th percentile and $15.90 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.

The raw counts, before anyone interprets them: under $5,000, 3,861 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 3,515. $10,000 to $24,999, 6,105. Over $100,000, 1,242 — and 276 over $250,000.