by Anmol Bhandari, Tobey Kass, Thomas J. May, Ellen McGrattan, and Evan Schulz.
Part of the IRS Joint Statistical Research Program
The data above shows the income patterns for individuals of various employment statuses, compiled from anonymized IRS tax filings. The options provided allow you to examine and compare the income patterns of self-employed individuals and several reference groups across selected demographic, skills, and industry groups.
For more information on the sample, refer to the full paper and the online appendix.
| CPS Samples | IRS Samples | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1) | (2) | (1) | (2) | (3) | |
| Observations (Mil.) | 85.1 | 138.3 | 169.2 | 97.7 | 107.6 |
| Incomes (2012$, Th.) | |||||
| Mean, Total Income | 49.6 | 66.2 | 74.1 | 85.4 | 88.6 |
| Percentiles, 10th | 8.5 | 10.6 | 0 | 5.5 | 5.9 |
| 25th | 15.7 | 20.4 | 10.5 | 11.8 | 12.7 |
| 50th | 30.1 | 38.9 | 22 | 26.4 | 29 |
| 75th | 54.6 | 74 | 60.7 | 73.9 | 78.4 |
| 90th | 100.4 | 138.1 | 159.9 | 190.3 | 193.3 |
| Mean, SE Income | 47.6 | 65.2 | 70.3 | 80.9 | 75 |
| Percentiles, 10th | 8.4 | 10.4 | -5 | 5.4 | -6 |
| Percentiles, 25th | 15.3 | 20.2 | 10 | 11 | 10.2 |
| Percentiles, 50th | 29.6 | 38.8 | 21 | 25.1 | 23.1 |
| Percentiles, 75th | 53.2 | 72.9 | 57.7 | 69.8 | 64.1 |
| Percentiles, 90th | 98.2 | 135.8 | 152 | 180.8 | 167.8 |
| College-Educated (%) | 40.7 | 46.8 | 0 | 54.8 | 56.5 |
| Top NAICS Codes | |||||
| 1st | 23 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 23 |
| 2nd | 81 | 44 | 54 | 54 | 54 |
| 3rd | 44 | 54 | 81 | 81 | 81 |
| 4th | 56 | 81 | 62 | 44 | 44 |
| 5th | 62 | 62 | 44 | 62 | 62 |
| Demographics | |||||
| Male (%) | 64.9 | 68 | 72.6 | 72.7 | 73 |
| Married (%) | 70.4 | 74.4 | 62.5 | 66 | 67.2 |
| Birth Year | 1961 | 1961 | 1961 | 1962 | 1962 |
In the first pair of tables, summary statistics are reported for two CPS samples that differ in the criteria used to assign individuals in a particular year as “self-employed.” CPS sample (1) uses business income reported in the survey as self-employment income, and categorizes an individual as self-employed if the absolute value of that self-employment income is greater than $5,000 (in 2012 dollars) and greater than income from paid-employment. The same criteria for defining the self-employed is used for CPS sample (2), but after reclassifying wage and salary income of incorporated business owners as income from self-employment and adding that to the business income reported in the survey. The criteria used to assign individual-year observations in the IRS self-employed sample (1) are the same as for the CPS sample (1). Sample criteria for IRS samples (2) and (3) are the same as in Table 1 of the main text. To ensure that no confidential information is disclosed, reported IRS percentiles are computed as an average of observations around the value listed in the table.
The second pair of tables reports shares of the self-employed and paid-employed—in individual counts and total incomes—after ranking individuals by their total incomes. Income bins are defined using percentiles of income for the self-employed in CPS sample (1).
For more information on the sample, refer to the full paper and the online appendix.
The data above show a select set of summary statistics of various employment statuses, compiled from anonymized IRS tax filings. The options provided allow you to examine and compare these statistics across groupings by gender, college education, and employer status. They also allow you to analyze these same statistics after decomposing the primary self-employed sample into those who are self-employed for pecuniary reasons and those who are not.
For more information on the sample, refer to the full paper and the online appendix.
The sample underlying this chart includes all individuals in the “Total Sample” column of Table 2 of the main text. Entry rates to and exit rates from self-employment are reported by year and by age, for all self-employed and separately for those switching to or from paid- and non-employment.
For more information on the sample, refer to the full paper and the online appendix.
The data above shows selected percentiles of the distribution of the age-over-age change in residual income (after subtracting the age and time effects estimated in Section 4 of the main text) normalized by previous year income. To ensure that no confidential information is disclosed, reported percentiles are computed as an average of observations around the value listed in the table. Industries are classified by 2-digit NAICS.
For more information on the sample, refer to the full paper and the online appendix.
Label:
Value: