Self-employment method
Translation and Interpretation Services
52,354 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 52,354 people who filed under this code in 2022, 45.87% 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 = 52,354 · 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 | 15,028 | 28.7% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 8,985 | 17.2% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 12,918 | 24.7% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 8,401 | 16.0% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 5,058 | 9.7% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 1,592 | 3.0% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 236 | 0.5% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 119 | 0.2% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 17 | 0.0% |
Who this suits
Median gross receipts of $12,513 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.
With 52,354 filers, this is a populated field. The market sets the price rather than you, and the useful question is what would let you charge above it.
1,989 filers cleared $100,000 in gross receipts, or 3.8% of the field. Small, but large enough that the upper tier of Translation and Interpretation Services is a real destination rather than an anecdote.
Professional services are the classic solo business: low capital, high skill, and a ceiling set by how many hours you can sell. It suits people who can market as competently as they deliver.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 52,354 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
Bottom quarter under $4,355, top quarter over $31,947: 7.3x, or $2,299 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 Translation and Interpretation Services earns under $4,355 — $45,665 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 pricing by the hour if you cannot fill the hours; the ceiling is arithmetic and it arrives sooner than you think.
45.9% of 52,354 filers in 2022 took under $10,000 across the entire year: 24,014 people. Close to half of everyone in Translation and Interpretation Services is in that band, and gross receipts is the generous way of counting it.
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 7.3x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $12,513 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Translation and Interpretation Services should plan around it.
The middle half of this field earns between $4,355 and $31,947. That is $27,592 of range, with $12,513 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
The 75th percentile is $31,947. Reaching it from the $12,513 midpoint is $19,434 a year; reaching it from the $4,355 that the bottom quarter of Translation and Interpretation Services earn is $27,592.
The upper half of the middle range — $12,513 to $31,947, or $19,434 — is far longer than the lower half at $8,158. In a shape like this an average would flatter Translation and Interpretation Services considerably, and would describe nobody.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Translation and Interpretation Services takes $6.01 in revenue — $2.09 at the bottom quarter and $15.35 at the top. Costs have not been deducted from any of those figures, so none of them is an hourly wage.
The raw counts, before anyone interprets them: under $5,000, 15,028 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 8,985. $10,000 to $24,999, 12,918. Over $100,000, 1,964 — and 372 over $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 $12,513 midpoint for Translation and Interpretation Services is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $12,513 salary.
The hourly number on this page is $12,513 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Translation and Interpretation Services, 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