A record 5.6 million independent workers earned more than $100,000 last year.
That's according to MBO Partners' 2025 State of Independence in America report, the longest-running annual study of the independent workforce in the country. The $100K threshold matters here because the average traditionally employed U.S. worker earns approximately $66,000. So we're not talking about people scraping by. We're talking about people who left the W-2 world and, in many cases, are doing better financially than if they'd stayed.
The 19% jump - from 4.7 million in 2024 to 5.6 million in 2025 - is also not a blip. In 2020, only 3 million independents hit six figures. When MBO Partners first started tracking this in 2011, it was 1.9 million.
Something is compounding here. And it's worth understanding what.
The Number That Actually Matters
The income data is impressive. But the statistic I keep coming back to is this one: 84% of independent workers say they're happier working on their own.
Not 54%. Not 64%. Eighty-four percent.
And importantly, that number is higher than the 59% who say they earn more independently. Which means for roughly a quarter of independent workers, the trade-off is: "I probably don't make more than I would in a job, but I'm still happier." They're choosing this anyway.
That tells you something about why people go independent - and why they stay.
The report also found that nearly 80% of independents plan to remain on this path or grow their business. This is not a backup plan for most of them. It's a direction.
Who's Hitting Six Figures (and Why)
The 5.6 million figure is driven by two groups, according to MBO Partners.
The first is Millennials moving into their peak earning years while staying independent. They entered the independent workforce in their 20s, built skills and client networks over time, and are now in their late 30s and early 40s commanding professional rates.
The second is workers who entered during the 2020-2021 boom in remote and freelance work and stuck with it. The pandemic cracked open the assumption that you had to be in an office to do serious work. Many of the people who went independent then never went back - and the ones who stayed built real businesses.
The pattern between these two groups is the same: time, compounding relationships, and specialization.
The System They Have in Common
Six-figure independents don't necessarily work more hours. In fact, many work fewer. What they tend to share are systems that let them earn more from each hour.
Here's what shows up consistently:
They narrowed their niche. The jump from $60K to $100K for most independents doesn't happen because they took on more clients. It happens because they stopped competing on price and started competing on specificity. "Marketing consultant" competes against hundreds of thousands of people. "Revenue strategy for B2B SaaS companies under Series A" competes against a much smaller pool - and commands much higher rates.
They charge for outputs, not hours. Hourly billing caps your income. The moment you can't physically work more hours, you hit a ceiling. Project-based pricing, retainer arrangements, and productized services break that ceiling. If you're still billing hourly for work that has a predictable scope, that's the first thing worth changing.
They treat client acquisition like a system, not an event. The independents who consistently earn over $100K are almost never waiting for referrals to happen. They have a repeatable process - whether that's a LinkedIn content cadence, a quarterly outreach campaign, or a pipeline of past clients they check in with twice a year. They know where the next client is coming from before they need one.
They stack AI tools as capacity multipliers. MBO Partners' report specifically notes that AI tools are amplifying independent workers' capacity, creativity, and confidence. The six-figure independents aren't trying to do more in the same amount of time. They're offloading the lower-value tasks - first drafts, research, formatting, scheduling - so they can spend more time on the work only they can do.
They keep their overhead lean. The math on $100K as an independent is different from $100K as an employee. You pay self-employment tax (15.3% on net income). You pay your own health insurance. You fund your own retirement. But the independents who do this well have built an infrastructure that reflects those realities - a SEP-IRA or Solo 401(k), a health plan through the ACA marketplace or a professional association, and a clear separation between business income and personal spending.
The Creator Economy Within the Data
One more finding worth flagging: after a plateau in 2023, the number of independent content creators jumped 13% in 2025 to 10.1 million.
"Creators" here includes people running monetized YouTube channels, newsletters, podcasts, social media accounts, and direct-to-consumer content businesses - not just people with large followings, but anyone whose primary income comes from content they produce independently.
The report notes that younger workers are leading this wave, but older creators are gaining ground too - MBO Partners specifically mentions "granfluencers" in their data, which is not a term I expected to see in an economics report, but here we are.
The point isn't that everyone should become a creator. It's that the category of what counts as independent work has expanded significantly, and the ceiling on income in these new models is real.
One More Data Point
36% of traditionally employed workers now report having a side gig.
Nearly half of traditional workers say they worry about job loss. That fear isn't driving them to find another employer. It's driving them toward income independence.
Whether that's a side project that becomes a full-time business, a consulting practice built alongside a day job, or a skills-based service offered on the weekends - the direction is the same.
The independent workforce is not a niche. It is a major and growing segment of the American economy. And the data is increasingly clear that the people inside it - at least the ones who stick with it - are finding a version of work that traditional employment often doesn't offer.
The 84% happiness number is probably the most honest way to understand why.
Source: MBO Partners 2025 State of Independence in America Report, mbopartners.com/state-of-independence
The Useful Daily covers practical news and strategy for small business owners and independent workers. Published weekdays at theusefuldaily.com.