Wood Product Manufacturing

At the midpoint this work grossed $17,261 for the year — $1,438 a month in revenue. That is a real second income and a long way short of a first one, and Census cannot tell you which of those the typical filer intended.

29,290 people filed under this code, almost none of whom appear in any employment statistic. Wood Product Manufacturing is part of the economy salary surveys simply do not see.

A 14.4% share — 4,217 filers — grossed $100,000 or more. That is well above what most codes here manage, and it says the middle of Wood Product Manufacturing is closer to a business than to a sideline.

Independent wood product work suits people with a shop already equipped and a local trade or design market that will pay for something not bought off a pallet.

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.

The top quarter of Wood Product Manufacturing earns 10.5x the bottom quarter — under $4,948 against over $52,025, a spread of $47,077. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.

The bottom quarter of Wood Product Manufacturing earns under $4,948 — $45,072 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 with equipment financed against expected orders; the capital commitment lands before the revenue does.

11,783 filers out of 29,290 — 40.2% — 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 $4,948 to $52,025 is 10.5x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $17,261 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.

In cash terms the middle half of Wood Product Manufacturing runs $4,948 to $52,025 — $47,077 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $17,261.

The 75th percentile is $52,025. Reaching it from the $17,261 midpoint is $34,764 a year; reaching it from the $4,948 that the bottom quarter of Wood Product Manufacturing earn is $47,077.

$12,313 below the midpoint, $34,764 above it. That asymmetry is extreme even for this data, and it means every summary of Wood Product Manufacturing that is not a median — including any average you see quoted elsewhere — is describing the top of the range rather than the middle.

Converted to a 2,080-hour year, the receipts run $2.37 an hour at the 25th percentile, $8.29 at the midpoint and $25.01 at the 75th. Read them as revenue per hour worked; the equivalent wage is lower by whatever this work costs to do.

The raw counts, before anyone interprets them: under $5,000, 7,399 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 4,384. $10,000 to $24,999, 5,910. Over $100,000, 4,218 — and 1,622 over $250,000.