Self-employment method
Special food services
371,535 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 371,535 people who filed under this code in 2022, 54.31% 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 = 371,535 · 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 | 132,149 | 35.6% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 69,640 | 18.7% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 91,081 | 24.5% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 36,474 | 9.8% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 21,090 | 5.7% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 15,123 | 4.1% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 4,320 | 1.2% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 1,457 | 0.4% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 201 | 0.1% |
Who this suits
The midpoint filer took $8,850 in gross receipts for the year. Before expenses. That is not a low income from this work — for half the field it is not income from this work at all, it is a hobby with a tax form attached.
With 371,535 filers, Special food services is a substantial informal workforce. Enough people do it that local pricing is set by the field rather than by you.
5.7% 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 food and accommodation work suits people who can run a licensed, inspected operation on thin margins and who count their own labour as a cost rather than as profit.
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 Special food services earns 6.4x the bottom quarter — under $3,514 against over $22,658, a spread of $19,144. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Special food services earns under $3,514 — $46,506 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 sector here.
54.3% of 371,535 filers — 201,780 people — grossed under $10,000 in 2022. More than half of everyone who tried Special food services took in less than $10,000 before any expense came out.
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 6.4x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $8,850 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Special food services should plan around it.
In cash terms the middle half of Special food services runs $3,514 to $22,658 — $19,144 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $8,850.
Getting to $22,658, the 75th percentile, is worth $13,808 a year more than the $8,850 midpoint and $19,144 more than the $3,514 a quarter of Special food services settle for.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $4.25 at the midpoint for Special food services, $1.68 at the 25th percentile and $10.89 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
Counted straight off the return: 132,149 filers grossed under $5,000, 69,640 took $5,000 to $9,999, 91,081 took $10,000 to $24,999, 21,101 cleared $100,000 and 5,978 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 $8,850 midpoint for Special food services is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $8,850 salary.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Special food services, the hourly figure is $8,850 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · Look up something else