Self-employment method
Utility system construction
10,817 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 10,817 people who filed under this code in 2022, 28.35% 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 = 10,817 · 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 | 1,880 | 17.4% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 1,187 | 11.0% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 2,105 | 19.5% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 1,697 | 15.7% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 1,563 | 14.4% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 1,333 | 12.3% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 571 | 5.3% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 362 | 3.3% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 119 | 1.1% |
Who this suits
At a $28,484 median in gross receipts, the typical person under this code is running a real but part-time operation. Full-time equivalence would require roughly triple this before costs.
At 10,817 filers this is a real but thin national population. There is no established price for Utility system construction at this scale, which cuts both ways: nothing anchors you low and nothing anchors you high.
2,379 filers, 22.0% of the total, took $100,000 or more in receipts. Read the size of that group as evidence about turnover in Utility system construction rather than about income: the costs scale with it.
Heavy and civil work is bid to public and institutional clients, so it suits people who can handle bonding, prequalification and a procurement process with its own vocabulary.
There is no qualification, licence or minimum to appear in this data — you file and you are counted. Read the receipts distribution as the price of that: no barrier at the door means no filter before the numbers.
Who should not do this
Bottom quarter under $8,472, top quarter over $89,787: 10.6x, or $6,776 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 Utility system construction earns under $8,472 — $41,548 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 bonding and prequalification are out of reach — without them the work is not biddable at all.
28.4% — 3,066 of the 10,817 filers in 2022 — grossed under $10,000 for the year. That is not the tail of the distribution, it is a third of it, and it is measured 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
At 10.6x, the gap between $8,472 and $89,787 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $28,484 is real and it is not a forecast — the people quoting the upper end at you are describing a minority.
Put in money rather than ratios: $8,472 at the 25th percentile, $28,484 at the midpoint, $89,787 at the 75th. $81,315 separates the quarter of Utility system construction at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Between $8,472 and $89,787 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $28,484. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $61,303; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $81,315.
$20,012 below the midpoint, $61,303 above it. That asymmetry is extreme even for this data, and it means every summary of Utility system construction that is not a median — including any average you see quoted elsewhere — is describing the top of the range rather than the middle.
Spread across a 2,080-hour year those receipts come to $13.69 an hour at the midpoint, $4.07 at the 25th percentile and $43.16 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 Utility system construction: 1,880 filers under $5,000, 1,187 between $5,000 and $9,999, 2,105 between $10,000 and $24,999, 2,385 above $100,000 and 1,052 above $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Read every figure here as GROSS RECEIPTS rather than income. $28,484 is turnover — the money that passed through Utility system construction before expenses. What is left after costs is a different and much smaller number that this dataset does not publish.
The hourly number on this page is $28,484 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Utility system construction, 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