How much money is tagged SELF-EMPLOYED in FEC data?

The hyphenated SELF-EMPLOYED string accounts for $1.2B in itemized individual contributions on LobbyVault's FEC.gov index. That is 3,584,096 receipts from 161,571 donors. The unhyphenated SELF EMPLOYED label is stored separately and is not inside this total. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

Is SELF-EMPLOYED the same as SELF EMPLOYED without a hyphen?

No. FEC employer and occupation fields are literal text. SELF-EMPLOYED and SELF EMPLOYED are different strings, so LobbyVault keeps separate rows. Combining them would be an extra research step, not the official file layout. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

Does this include all independent contractors?

No. Only receipts whose employer or occupation text matched SELF-EMPLOYED are in the $1.2B figure. People who wrote a company name, CONTRACTOR, CONSULTANT, or SELF are in other buckets. The label is not a NAICS or IRS classification. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

How many unique SELF-EMPLOYED donors are in the table?

LobbyVault counts 161,571 donors under the hyphenated string, against 3,584,096 contribution lines. Repeat gifts by the same person increase the receipt count without increasing the donor count. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

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SELF EMPLOYED

Total Donated

$627,754,974

Contributions

2,133,270

Unique Donors

91,203

Top Employer

SELF EMPLOYED

The hyphenated label SELF-EMPLOYED on FEC contribution schedules sums to $1.2B in itemized individual gifts, per FEC.gov data indexed on LobbyVault. That rollup covers 3,584,096 contributions and 161,571 donors. SELF-EMPLOYED is a self-reported employer/occupation string, not a NAICS code, and it is stored separately from the unhyphenated SELF EMPLOYED text (a different FEC string totaling $627.8M on its own packet) and from the shorter SELF label. Readers comparing independent-worker money should treat each spelling as its own FEC bucket.

Key figures

Hyphenated SELF-EMPLOYED receipts sum to $1.2B on FEC itemized records.
The cluster is 3,584,096 contributions from 161,571 donors.
The hyphenated string is not merged with SELF EMPLOYED or SELF.
The label is self-reported FEC text, not a NAICS industry.

Hyphenated text is its own FEC bucket

Treasurers transcribe whatever the donor wrote, or whatever the committee's software stored, into employer and occupation. SELF-EMPLOYED with a hyphen is a different stored string from SELF EMPLOYED with a space. LobbyVault does not fuzzy-merge them, because the public file does not. The $1.2B total on this page is only the hyphenated form.

That matters for anyone scraping 'gig work' or 'independent contractor' narratives from campaign-finance tables. The FEC does not certify that every SELF-EMPLOYED row is a sole proprietor in the IRS sense. It certifies that the letters appeared on a schedule. Some rows may be consultants, shop owners, or people who simply declined to name a firm.

Dollars, receipts, and unique donors

3,584,096 contribution lines sit under this string, produced by 161,571 donors. Receipt count is much larger than donor count because repeat giving is normal: primary, general, several committees, several years. The aggregate does not say how many of those donors also appear under SELF, CONSULTANT, or a trade name.

Compared with status words such as RETIRED, the hyphenated SELF-EMPLOYED cluster is smaller in both dollars ($1.2B) and headcount (161,571). It is still one of the largest free-text groups in the industry table. Size here is a filing-frequency fact, not a measure of the U.S. self-employed population.

Full analysis: SELF-EMPLOYED (hyphenated) FEC string: $1.2B →

Questions

How much money is tagged SELF-EMPLOYED in FEC data?: The hyphenated SELF-EMPLOYED string accounts for $1.2B in itemized individual contributions on LobbyVault's FEC.gov index. That is 3,584,096 receipts from 161,571 donors. The unhyphenated SELF EMPLOYED label is stored separately and is not inside this total. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.
Is SELF-EMPLOYED the same as SELF EMPLOYED without a hyphen?: No. FEC employer and occupation fields are literal text. SELF-EMPLOYED and SELF EMPLOYED are different strings, so LobbyVault keeps separate rows. Combining them would be an extra research step, not the official file layout. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.
Does this include all independent contractors?: No. Only receipts whose employer or occupation text matched SELF-EMPLOYED are in the $1.2B figure. People who wrote a company name, CONTRACTOR, CONSULTANT, or SELF are in other buckets. The label is not a NAICS or IRS classification. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.
How many unique SELF-EMPLOYED donors are in the table?: LobbyVault counts 161,571 donors under the hyphenated string, against 3,584,096 contribution lines. Repeat gifts by the same person increase the receipt count without increasing the donor count. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

Industry labels come from FEC employer/occupation self-reports, not NAICS. Data from FEC.gov via LobbyVault.

Industry ties

All data ties →

Cycle-over-Cycle Trend

2008 · $667,341 2002 · $642,076 2000 · $610,658 2012 · $574,518 2006 · $552,272 1980 · $534,417 1996 · $477,794 2004 · $454,099 2010 · $421,135 2014 · $403,793

SELF EMPLOYED political contributions by election cycle.
Cycle	Total	Contributions	Donors
1980	$534,417	611	390
1982	$318,288	281	117
1984	$320,892	276	98
1986	$219,855	233	86
1988	$235,000	204	81
1990	$204,280	231	84
1992	$320,716	354	93
1994	$303,221	349	73
1996	$477,794	482	106
1998	$330,255	379	78
2000	$610,658	426	91
2002	$642,076	344	73
2004	$454,099	482	79
2006	$552,272	459	66
2008	$667,341	600	75
2010	$421,135	403	73
2012	$574,518	511	67
2014	$403,793	395	54

Top Donors

Top SELF EMPLOYED donors ranked by total donated.
#	Name	Total	Contributions	City / State	Occupation	History
1	FERRY, SANDRA	$27,550	37	CAMBRIDGE, MA	—	1980
2	HAMON, JAKE L	$12,250	13	DALLAS, TX	—	1980
3	KELLEY, JACK W	$11,000	3	TULSA, OK	—	1980
4	GREEN, DOROTHY	$10,500	6	BEVERLY HILLS, CA	—	1980
5	KERR, ROBERT W	$8,900	4	SANRA ROSA, CA	—	1980
6	BETTIS, H M	$7,781	6	GRAHAM, TX	—	1980
7	GREENBERG, SANFORD D	$7,550	9	WASHINGTON, DC	—	1980
8	CORMIER, LAWRENCE J	$7,500	5	HOLLIS, NY	—	1980
9	MALLORY, LAURA D	$6,000	3	SAN ANTONIO, TX	—	1980
10	FARB, HAROLD MR	$5,500	2	HOUSTON, TX	—	1980
11	FUSSCAS, HELEN	$5,000	1	MARLBOROUGH, CT	—	1980
12	MURTHA, HAROLD W	$5,000	1	NAUGATUCK, CT	—	1980
13	MORLEY, NICHOLAS H	$5,000	6	CORAL GABLES, FL	—	1980
14	CARPIONATO, ALFRED MR	$5,000	1	CRANSTON, RI	—	1980
15	HARMER, JOHN (IK)	$5,000	1	SALT LAKE CITY, UT	—	1980
16	CHOATE, ARTHUR O JR	$5,000	1	NEW YORK, NY	—	1980
17	HUPALOWSKI, ROMAN	$5,000	1	CHICAGO, IL	—	1980
18	MILLIKIN, SEVERANCE A	$5,000	4	CLEVELAND, OH	—	1980
19	ELLIS, NEIL H MR	$5,000	1	MANCHESTER, CT	—	1980
20	FEIL, LOUIS	$4,500	3	NEW YORK, NY	—	1980
21	GUND, GORDON	$4,300	5	PRINCETON, NJ	—	1980
22	LENSING, DAVID C	$4,000	4	LAKE PROVIDENCE, LA	—	1980
23	LEDRICK, PAUL C MR	$4,000	2	PAMPA, TX	—	1980
24	ALBERT, JACK	$4,000	4	SAN ANGELO, TX	—	1980
25	HADDAD, LAWRENCE	$4,000	4	RIVER FOREST, IL	—	1980
26	DE WITT, JOHN E JR	$4,000	1	SOUTH EL MONTE, CA	—	1980
27	ISAKSON, E A	$3,950	4	ROSWELL, GA	—	1980
28	LYNCH, EDWIN MR	$3,750	1	BURKE, VA	—	1980
29	DICKINSON, FRANCES ANN	$3,500	2	WICHITA FALLS, TX	—	1980
30	ANDERSON, THORNTON E	$3,500	4	DENVER, CO	—	1980
31	BALDERELLI, LEE	$3,500	2	INCLINE VILLAGE, NV	—	1980
32	HOLMES, THOMAS J MR	$3,000	5	HOUSTON, TX	—	1980
33	HARTSFIELD, RAYMOND J	$3,000	3	BOSSIER CITY, LA	—	1980
34	KILTZ, WILLIAM	$2,700	3	POSEYVILLE, IN	—	1980
35	ANDERSON, WILLIAM	$2,650	4	SHREVEPORT, LA	—	1980
36	MORGAN, FRANK L MR	$2,595	3	SOUTHPORT, CT	—	1980
37	KURTZ, MICHEAL P	$2,500	1	WATERTOWN, MA	—	1980
38	HAYNES, JOHN E	$2,500	1	ATLANTA, GA	—	1980
39	JOHNSON, JEROME W	$2,500	3	AMARILLO, TX	—	1980
40	BROADHEAD, PAUL	$2,500	2	MERIDIAN, MS	—	1980
41	HAWN, JOHN D	$2,250	4	CORPUS CHRISTI, TX	—	1980
42	BROWN, THOMAS P	$2,250	3	SANTA BARBARA, CA	—	1980
43	ANDERSON, LYNN	$2,250	4	PERIA, AZ	—	1980
44	BROWN, SAMUEL HOUSTON	$2,100	4	TACOMA, WA	—	1980
45	FRINK, GARY R MR	$2,050	1	WASHINGTON, DC	—	1980
46	BEAL, ROBERT L	$2,050	5	BOSTON, MA	—	1980
47	EVANS, ROBERT G	$2,000	2	GRETNA, LA	—	1980
48	ANDERSEN, CHRIS C	$2,000	2	CHICAGO, IL	—	1980
49	FROGALE, WILLIAM C	$2,000	2	FALLS CHURCH, VA	—	1980
50	FIX, JOHN	$2,000	2	BELLEVUE, WA	—	1980

Top Recipients

Top political committees that received SELF EMPLOYED donations.
#	Committee	Total	Contributions
1	ACTBLUEC00401224	$889,370	94
2	DCCCC00000935	$661,889	117
3	NEW DAY INDEPENDENT MEDIA COMMITTEE INCC00582973	$500,000	5
4	NEW DAY FOR AMERICAC00581868	$455,000	5
5	CLFC00504530	$428,000	5
6	LF PACC00804856	$400,000	5
7	DSCC NON-FEDERAL BUILDING FUNDC60000023	$300,000	37
8	DNC-NON-FEDERAL INDIVIDUALC60000254	$286,071	15
9	REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEEC00003418	$268,190	107
10	NATIONAL REPUBLICAN SENATORIAL COMMITTEE - CONTRIBUTIONS *C00091009	$261,190	151
11	WINREDC00694323	$247,283	79
12	NRSCC00027466	$230,458	78
13	SLF PACC00571703	$200,000	5
14	STRATEGIC VICTORY FUND IE PACC00741769	$200,000	5
15	HILLARY VICTORY FUNDC00586537	$190,834	35
16	HMPC00495028	$190,605	6
17	REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE - CONTRIBUTIONS (AKA REPUBLICAN NATIONAL FINANCE COMMITTEEC00003376	$180,265	61
18	DNC SERVICES CORP / DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEEC00010603	$177,948	134
19	JUST THE TRUTH POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEEC00747097	$170,000	5
20	DSCCC00042366	$155,151	110
21	HARRIS VICTORY FUNDC00744946	$146,374	31
22	OBAMA FOR AMERICAC00431445	$110,245	70
23	FIGHT FOR THE PEOPLE PACC00703975	$97,344	70
24	NANCY PELOSI VICTORY FUNDC00492421	$70,650	3
25	TRUMP MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN COMMITTEEC00618371	$67,034	65