Self-employment method
Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars
18,452 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 18,452 people who filed under this code in 2022, 40.19% 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 = 18,452 · 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 | 4,535 | 24.6% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 2,880 | 15.6% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 4,288 | 23.2% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 2,374 | 12.9% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 2,016 | 10.9% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 1,741 | 9.4% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 544 | 2.9% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 74 | 0.4% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $16,335 for the year — $1,361 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.
18,452 people filed under this code — enough that the work exists everywhere and not enough that it supports a visible trade. Most people doing Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars are doing it alongside something else.
A 12.8% share — 2,361 filers — grossed $100,000 or more. That is well above what most codes here manage, and it says the middle of Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars is closer to a business than to a sideline.
Independent food service suits people who can control food cost, labour cost and rent simultaneously — miss any one and the other two stop mattering.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 18,452 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
9.2x between the quarters — $5,135 against $47,494, or $3,529 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 Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars earns under $5,135 — $44,885 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 in someone else’s operation first. Food margins punish inexperience faster than any other subsector here.
7,415 filers out of 18,452 — 40.2% — reported under $10,000 in gross receipts in 2022. At that share the bottom band is not a warning about beginners; it is a description of a large part of the field.
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
A ratio of 9.2x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $16,335 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars should plan around it.
Put in money rather than ratios: $5,135 at the 25th percentile, $16,335 at the midpoint, $47,494 at the 75th. $42,359 separates the quarter of Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
The 75th percentile is $47,494. Reaching it from the $16,335 midpoint is $31,159 a year; reaching it from the $5,135 that the bottom quarter of Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars earn is $42,359.
The top quarter of Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars begins $31,159 above the $16,335 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $11,200 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 Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars takes $7.85 in revenue — $2.46 at the bottom quarter and $22.83 at the top. Costs have not been deducted from any of those figures, so none of them is an hourly wage.
Counted straight off the return: 4,535 filers grossed under $5,000, 2,880 took $5,000 to $9,999, 4,288 took $10,000 to $24,999, 2,359 cleared $100,000 and 618 cleared $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 $16,335 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $16,335 wage and should never be read as one.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $16,335 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