Articles Ranking
Revenue per employee, ranked
A portable toilet fleet, a vending route, a junk hauler, two laundromat businesses, a lawn company and a night cleaning crew. Seven owners who published a headcount, ranked by what each employee brings in, and why equipment beats labor on this measure.
Seven owners in this database have published both a revenue figure and a headcount for the same stage of their business. This page divides one by the other and ranks the result. The spread runs from about $19,000 per employee in a first-year cleaning company to about $226,000 in a portable toilet fleet. The ranking mostly sorts the businesses by how much of the earning is done by equipment rather than by people.
Every revenue figure and headcount comes from the owner's entry. The per-employee figures are our division, rounded. Where an owner gave a monthly figure we multiplied by twelve. Owners are not counted in the headcount unless their entry counts them, and part-time staff count as one each, which understates what a full-time equivalent brings in. Revenue is not profit: the margin ledger covers what each trade keeps.
$4.3 million of 2025 total income across 19 employees and a fleet of almost 2,000 units. Labor is about 30 percent of revenue.
$500,000 in 2022 sales and five part-time employees in his cost breakdown, who take about 10 percent of revenue. He works about four hours a week on the route.
About $20,000 a month at its later run rate, roughly $240,000 a year, with a three-person team and 75-plus jobs a month. Sold in 2024.
About $24,000 a month from a 40-machine store, roughly $288,000 a year, with four employees. She and her husband work alongside them.
About $1 million a year with a staff of fifteen in 2017, when Augusta opened its second location. Before franchising.
Over $2 million a year across four fully attended stores with a team of about 40.
$170,000 in the first full year with nine employees, on jobs of two to three hours a night. The founders kept their day jobs.
Left out, and why
Michael Haskell, storage unit flipping. $135,000 of 2025 revenue with no employees at all. There is nothing to divide by, so he is listed here rather than ranked. His is the only entry whose key figures list zero employees.
John and Tom D'Eri, car washes. Nearly $6 million a year across three locations, with roughly 90 neurodivergent employees out of a larger staff. The full headcount is not on record, so all we can say is that revenue per employee is below about $67,000, our arithmetic.
Kyle Landwehr, junk removal. UpFlip reports $2.5 million a year, and his entry describes five-plus staff. Five into $2.5 million would be $500,000 a head, far above everyone else. The headcount is a floor, and his entry notes the coverage does not say whether the figure is revenue or take-home, so he is left out.
Owners without a headcount. Kim Hatch reports 18 septic jobs a day, Steve Hunsaker three or more install crews at peak, and Robinson and Silesky ran subcontractor crews, but none published how many people that is. The three franchise systems are left out because their staff belong to franchisees.
What the order shows
Assets earn where people cannot. Tom's toilets rent month after month whether or not anyone is standing next to them, and Gram's machines sell all day without staff. Both sit at the top. The cleaning companies sit at the bottom because in cleaning the labor is the product: there is no machine doing the work between visits. Laundromats land in the middle, with machines earning on their own and staff paid to keep the stores attended.
The stage matters. Gallagher's figure is from her first full year, and Andes's is from 2017, before Augusta franchised. A business hiring ahead of growth looks worse on this measure than it will once the new people are busy. Her nine employees also work shifts of two to three hours a night, so the number says more about short shifts than about productivity.
Per head is not profit per head. Gram keeps about half his revenue as take-home. Tom pays himself about $120,000 and reinvests the rest in units and trucks. Evans reported 65 percent margins per job. A high revenue figure per employee in a capital-heavy trade comes with trucks and units to pay for; the startup cost ladder puts a credible portable toilet start at about $250,000.
Where to go next. The Boring Index scores each of these trades, and the exit ledger covers what businesses like these sell for once they run without their founder. For how the owners pay the people behind these numbers, see our piece on how the owners pay the people who do the work. Every owner above is in the database. This site is one of SideRoad's weekly builds.
Common questions
Which documented boring business brings in the most revenue per employee?
Daniel Tom's Bay Area Sanitation. It reported $4.3 million of total income in 2025 with 19 employees, about $226,000 per employee by our arithmetic. The fleet of almost 2,000 portable toilets does most of the earning, and labor is about 30 percent of revenue.
Why is revenue per employee low in cleaning businesses?
Because the labor is the product. Haley Gallagher's commercial cleaning company turned over $170,000 in its first full year with nine employees, about $19,000 each by our arithmetic, on shifts of two to three hours a night. There is no equipment earning between visits, so revenue grows roughly in line with headcount.
Is revenue per employee the same as profit per employee?
No. Marcus Gram reports keeping about half his vending revenue, while Daniel Tom pays himself about $120,000 out of $4.3 million and reinvests the rest. Capital-heavy trades post high revenue per head but carry trucks and equipment that labor businesses do not. The margin ledger covers what each trade keeps.
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