Self-employment method
Utilities
17,263 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 17,263 people who filed under this code in 2022, 34.93% 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 = 17,263 · 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 | 3,809 | 22.1% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 2,221 | 12.9% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 3,804 | 22.0% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 2,287 | 13.2% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 1,782 | 10.3% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 1,663 | 9.6% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 852 | 4.9% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 491 | 2.8% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 354 | 2.1% |
Who this suits
The median filer grossed $20,258, or $1,688 a month before expenses. That is an operating business at part-time scale: enough revenue to be worth running properly, not enough to be the only thing in the household.
17,263 people filed under this code — enough that the work exists everywhere and not enough that it supports a visible trade. Most people doing Utilities are doing it alongside something else.
19.5% of filers grossed $100,000 or more, which is high for this dataset. A substantial share of this field is running an actual business rather than an occasional one.
Independent utility work is almost entirely subcontracting to regulated operators, which means procurement cycles and compliance paperwork are the real job.
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 Utilities earns 11.9x the bottom quarter — under $6,141 against over $73,183, a spread of $67,042. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Utilities earns under $6,141 — $43,879 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 the certifications and bonding the operators require — there is no informal entry route.
6,029 filers out of 17,263 — 34.9% — 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.
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
At 11.9x, the gap between $6,141 and $73,183 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $20,258 is real and it is not a forecast — the people quoting the upper end at you are describing a minority.
In cash terms the middle half of Utilities runs $6,141 to $73,183 — $67,042 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $20,258.
Getting to $73,183, the 75th percentile, is worth $52,925 a year more than the $20,258 midpoint and $67,042 more than the $6,141 a quarter of Utilities settle for.
The top quarter of Utilities begins $52,925 above the $20,258 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $14,117 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 Utilities takes $9.73 in revenue — $2.95 at the bottom quarter and $35.18 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, 3,809 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 2,221. $10,000 to $24,999, 3,804. Over $100,000, 3,360 — and 1,697 over $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Read every figure here as GROSS RECEIPTS rather than income. $20,258 is turnover — the money that passed through Utilities before expenses. What is left after costs is a different and much smaller number that this dataset does not publish.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $20,258 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