Support Activities for Animal Production

Median gross receipts of $17,414 put the typical filer somewhere between a serious side income and a failing attempt at a full-time one, and the receipts figure alone cannot tell you which.

62,549 people filed under this code. That is enough that Support Activities for Animal Production has a going local rate in most places, and enough that you will be quoted against someone else.

11.4% of filers grossed $100,000 or more. That is a substantial upper tier by the standards of this dataset — the difference between a full operation and an occasional one is visible in the distribution rather than only in the anecdotes.

Support work for agriculture and forestry suits people who own a machine and a skill somebody else needs for two weeks a year, and who can stitch a calendar out of those windows.

Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 62,549 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.

Bottom quarter under $5,760, top quarter over $46,456: 8.1x, or $3,391 a month. At this stretch the label has stopped describing one occupation, and every summary statistic about it — including the midpoint — should be treated with suspicion.

The bottom quarter of Support Activities for Animal Production earns under $5,760 — $44,260 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 cannot survive the months between the windows when this work actually exists.

24,131 filers out of 62,549 — 38.6% — 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.

From $5,760 to $46,456 is 8.1x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $17,414 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.

The middle half of this field earns between $5,760 and $46,456. That is $40,696 of range, with $17,414 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.

Between $5,760 and $46,456 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $17,414. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $29,042; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $40,696.

The upper half of the middle range — $17,414 to $46,456, or $29,042 — is far longer than the lower half at $11,654. In a shape like this an average would flatter Support Activities for Animal Production considerably, and would describe nobody.

Spread across a 2,080-hour year those receipts come to $8.37 an hour at the midpoint, $2.76 at the 25th percentile and $22.33 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 Support Activities for Animal Production: 14,114 filers under $5,000, 10,020 between $5,000 and $9,999, 14,447 between $10,000 and $24,999, 7,122 above $100,000 and 2,204 above $250,000.