Skip to main content
← Back to all occupations

SELF EMPLOYED

Total Donated

$36,457,822

Contributions

169,112

Unique Donors

7,177

Donors who listed SELF-EMPLOYED as occupation posted $50,537,459 in itemized federal receipts in LobbyVault’s FEC.gov bulk index. Those receipts are 191,206 contributions from 10,640 donor records. SELF-EMPLOYED is an employment-status phrase, not a trade. It does not say whether the person is a contractor, a shopkeeper, or a professional in private practice. In compact form that dollar total is $50.5 million in the LobbyVault index of FEC bulk data.

Key figures

  • SELF-EMPLOYED occupation itemizations sum to $50,537,459 from 191,206 contributions and 10,640 donors.
  • Mean amounts are about $264 per contribution and about $4,750 per donor record.
  • The phrase is employment status, not a trade or industry code.
  • OWNER and BUSINESS OWNER remain separate occupation keys.

A status label with ordinary means

191,206 itemizations against $50,537,459 implies about $264 per contribution. 10,640 donor records imply about $4,750 per donor and about 18 contributions per donor record. The shape looks like other mid-frequency labels, not like the concentrated FOUNDER key.

OWNER, BUSINESS OWNER, and CONSULTANT are neighboring titles people might have used instead. Those keys are not included in $50,537,459. A donor who switched phrases across gifts appears in more than one occupation total.

Hyphenation matters. Self employed without a hyphen may live in another key if it did not normalize to SELF-EMPLOYED.

What the phrase hides

Self-employed is how many people fill a short form when they have no employer name. The FEC occupation box then carries status rather than craft. Best-efforts rules still apply; the committee recorded the words it received.

Employer on these rows is often “self,” none, or a personal business name. Employer is not one of the three packet facts. Industry pages will not equal this occupation total.

Full analysis: SELF-EMPLOYED as FEC occupation text

Questions

How much have SELF-EMPLOYED donors given?
Occupation SELF-EMPLOYED is attached to $50,537,459 in LobbyVault’s FEC bulk index, from 191,206 contributions and 10,640 donor records. OWNER and BUSINESS OWNER are separate strings. Occupation is self-reported free text on FEC Form 3 and Form 3X schedules. Unitemized receipts never enter this occupation total. The live hub may apply cycle filters; this packet is the harvested occupation key.
What kind of work does SELF-EMPLOYED include?
The field does not say. It is an employment-status phrase. Craft, sector, and firm size are not encoded. $50,537,459 is the string total only. The matching contribution count is 191,206 and the matching donor-record count is 10,640. Those three numbers are occupation-string totals from FEC Form 3/3X itemizations indexed on LobbyVault, not a licensed roster and not a party split.
Is SELF-EMPLOYED the same as OWNER?
No. They are different occupation keys. This page covers SELF-EMPLOYED only: $50,537,459, 191,206 contributions, and 10,640 donors. Occupation is self-reported free text on FEC Form 3 and Form 3X schedules. Unitemized receipts never enter this occupation total. The live hub may apply cycle filters; this packet is the harvested occupation key.
What is the average SELF-EMPLOYED contribution?
$50,537,459 divided by 191,206 itemizations is about $264 per contribution. Divided by 10,640 donors, the mean is about $4,750 per donor record. Occupation is self-reported free text on FEC Form 3 and Form 3X schedules. Unitemized receipts never enter this occupation total. The live hub may apply cycle filters; this packet is the harvested occupation key.

Occupation is self-reported on FEC Form 3/3X itemizations. Indexed on LobbyVault from FEC bulk data.

Occupation × state ties

All data ties →