Self-employment method
Vending Machine Operators
19,677 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 19,677 people who filed under this code in 2022, 48.76% 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 = 19,677 · 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 | 6,303 | 32.0% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 3,292 | 16.7% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 4,169 | 21.2% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 2,443 | 12.4% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 1,754 | 8.9% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 1,240 | 6.3% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 367 | 1.9% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 109 | 0.6% |
Who this suits
Median gross receipts of $10,876 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.
19,677 filers is small enough that Vending Machine Operators is a niche rather than a market — the work exists, but there is no depth of demand to fall back on.
8.7% 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 retail suits people who understand that the margin is made at purchase, not at sale, and who can hold stock without letting it become the business’s entire cash position.
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 Vending Machine Operators earns 9.0x the bottom quarter — under $3,902 against over $35,169, a spread of $31,267. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Vending Machine Operators earns under $3,902 — $46,118 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 your capital is all going into stock. Unsold inventory is the standard failure mode in this sector.
Of the 19,677 people who filed as Vending Machine Operators in 2022, 48.8% grossed under $10,000 for the year — 9,594 people who did not clear a part-time wage in revenue, let alone in profit.
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 9.0x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $10,876 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Vending Machine Operators should plan around it.
In cash terms the middle half of Vending Machine Operators runs $3,902 to $35,169 — $31,267 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $10,876.
Getting to $35,169, the 75th percentile, is worth $24,293 a year more than the $10,876 midpoint and $31,267 more than the $3,902 a quarter of Vending Machine Operators settle for.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $5.22 at the midpoint for Vending Machine Operators, $1.87 at the 25th percentile and $16.90 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
Counted straight off the return: 6,303 filers grossed under $5,000, 3,292 took $5,000 to $9,999, 4,169 took $10,000 to $24,999, 1,716 cleared $100,000 and 476 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 $10,876 midpoint for Vending Machine Operators is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $10,876 salary.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Vending Machine Operators, the hourly figure is $10,876 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · Look up something else