Side hustle with a full-time job: median pay is $200 a month

A side hustle on top of a full-time job usually pays less than the list articles suggest. Bankrate’s 2025 survey puts the median at $200 a month. On the assumptions below, an evening delivery shift after work nets about $4.70 an hour once the car, the unpaid minutes and the tax are counted.

The numbers

Assumptions: 2 paid hours at $18 (the bottom of Amazon’s own Flex pay claim) plus 30 unpaid minutes; 25 miles at the IRS standard mileage rate of 76¢ (July to December 2026); $1 for phone; self-employment tax per IRS rules plus an assumed 12% federal income tax rate. Per-hour figures are rounded to the nearest 10 cents.

Reddit threads on running a side hustle alongside a full-time job are personal accounts, shaped by one person’s city, car and tax bracket. The inputs here are all listed, so you can swap in your own.

How common it is, and what it usually pays

Two sources count this differently, so they give different answers:

• Bankrate counts side hustles of any kind. 27% of US adults had one in 2025. That is the lowest share since 2017, down from 36% in 2024 and 39% in 2023. Gen Z is the highest generation at 34%, and parents of children under 18 are also at 34%.
• BLS data via FRED counts actual second jobs. 5.5% of employed people held more than one job in September 2026. That is 8,986,000 people, up from 8,428,000 in May 2026.

What the Bankrate group earns:

The average is more than four times the median, so a minority of large earners is pulling it up. A list promising $500 to $3,000 a month is describing roughly the top quarter of side hustlers. For more than a third of people the money isn’t optional either: 35% spend it on regular living costs, and 29% think they will always need it.

Assumptions

Change any of these to match your situation. The rest of the math follows from them.

1. Pay: $18 per paid hour. Amazon’s Flex page claims most drivers earn $18 to $25 an hour and says actual pay varies (Amazon Flex). We use the bottom of that range, because it is the platform’s own marketing figure.
2. Shift: two paid hours on a weeknight after work, plus 30 unpaid minutes driving to the pickup point and waiting. That is 2.5 hours away from home.
3. Miles: 25 per shift. This is our assumption, so use your own route.
4. Vehicle cost: the IRS standard mileage rate, 76¢ a mile from July 1 to December 31, 2026 (72.5¢ for the first half of the year). We use it as a stand-in for the full cost of running the car. Your real cost per mile could be higher or lower.
5. Phone: $1 per shift, as a share of your data plan.
6. Tax: self-employment tax at 15.3% on 92.35% of net earnings, which works out to 14.13% of net. On top of that, we assume a 12% federal income tax rate on the extra income. We ignore state income tax and the deduction for half of self-employment tax, so our tax figure runs slightly high.
7. Rounding: per-shift figures are to the cent and per-hour figures to the nearest 10 cents. The calculations use unrounded values.

Worked example: one shift, then one month

One weeknight shift:

Gross:          2 paid hours x $18.00          = $36.00
Vehicle:        25 miles x $0.76               = $19.00
Phone:                                         =  $1.00
Net before tax: $36.00 - $19.00 - $1.00        = $16.00
SE tax:         $16.00 x 0.9235 x 0.153        =  $2.26
Income tax:     $16.00 x 0.12 (assumed)        =  $1.92
Net after tax:  $16.00 - $2.26 - $1.92         = $11.82
Per hour:       $11.82 / 2.5 hours             =  $4.73

One month, with two shifts a week for four weeks (8 shifts, 20 hours):

Gross:          8 x $36.00                     = $288.00
Vehicle:        8 x $19.00                     = $152.00
Phone:          8 x $1.00                      =   $8.00
Net before tax:                                = $128.00
SE tax:         $128.00 x 0.141296             =  $18.09
Income tax:     $128.00 x 0.12                 =  $15.36
Net after tax:                                 =  $94.55

$288 gross is above Bankrate’s $200 median. After the car and the tax, about $95 is left for 20 hours of evenings. For a DoorDash-specific version of the same arithmetic, see Is DoorDash worth it? Driver math after gas, wear and tax.

The time budget

With a 40-hour week already booked, the practical number is how many evenings it takes to reach a goal. These figures use the unrounded $4.73 after-tax rate:

Clearing $500 a month at this rate takes about 26 extra hours a week, which amounts to a second part-time job stacked on the first. Shifts also start after a full workday, so sleep gets shorter and tired driving becomes a risk the table can’t price. If you are weighing a smaller commitment, how much 5 hours a week adds up to runs that math over a year.

What changes the answer

Each row changes one input from the base case. Tax is calculated the same way throughout.

In unit terms, each extra mile per shift costs about 22 cents an hour after tax:

$0.76 x (1 - 0.1413 - 0.12) / 2.5 hours = $0.22

Each extra $1 of pay per paid hour adds about 59 cents an hour after tax:

$2.00 x (1 - 0.1413 - 0.12) / 2.5 hours = $0.59

A long drive to the pickup point can therefore cancel out a better pay rate. At 40 miles, the shift barely beats staying home.

Two more things can change the result:

• Tips. You can deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips a year for tax years 2025 through 2028.
  • The deduction phases out above $150,000 modified AGI ($300,000 joint), and you need a valid Social Security number.
  • For gig workers, the tips must be reported on a 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC or 1099-K.
  • The deduction can’t exceed your net income from that gig.
  • The occupation must be on the IRS list of tipped occupations. The proposed list includes a “Transportation and Delivery” group.
  • The deduction only reduces income tax, so it would raise the after-tax line.
• A gig without a car. Freelancing or selling online swaps mileage for platform fees and tools. Build that cost line from the platform’s own fee page. Side hustles ranked by after-tax pay per hour compares several.

Tax when you already have a W-2 job

None of this is tax advice. It is arithmetic based on IRS rules, so check your own return with the IRS tools or a tax professional.

• Schedule SE is required once net self-employment earnings reach $400. At $128 net a month, the example passes that in its fourth month.
• Your wages use up the Social Security wage base first. The base is $184,500 for 2026 and $192,300 for 2027. If your wages alone pass it, side income owes only the 2.9% Medicare part, not the 12.4% Social Security part. On $1,000 of side net:

Wages under the base: $1,000 x 0.9235 x 0.153 = $141.30
Wages over the base:  $1,000 x 0.9235 x 0.029 =  $26.78

• Additional Medicare tax of 0.9% applies once wages plus self-employment income pass $200,000 (single), $250,000 (married filing jointly) or $125,000 (married filing separately). Your wages count toward that threshold first.
• Withholding can replace quarterly payments. Estimated payments are required if you expect to owe $1,000 or more when you file. To avoid a penalty, pay the smaller of 90% of this year’s tax or 100% of last year’s (110% if last year’s income was over $150,000). As an employee, you can instead file a new W-4 with your employer to withhold more, and the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator helps set the amount. The example month produces about $401 of extra tax a year ($33.45 x 12). That is below $1,000 on its own, but it is still owed. The last 2026 estimated payment is due January 15, 2027.
• No form doesn’t mean no tax. For payments made in 2026, the 1099-NEC threshold rose to $2,000. Payment apps and marketplaces only file a 1099-K above $20,000 and 200 transactions. The IRS position is unchanged: all income is taxable even without a form, and your state may use a lower threshold.
• Overtime at the day job has its own deduction: up to $12,500 ($25,000 joint) of the overtime premium the FLSA requires, for 2025 through 2028, with the same income phase-outs as the tips deduction.

Compared with

If your day job pays FLSA overtime and offers extra hours, the numbers favor taking them: no miles, no unpaid trip to a pickup point and no self-employment tax. The delivery shift is easier to switch on and off, and it’s there when overtime isn’t. A W-2 part-time job is a third option. It has no mileage and no self-employment tax, but its hours are fixed.

What your employer can and can’t do

This isn’t legal advice. Your contract and your state decide most of it.

• Read the handbook and your contract for moonlighting, conflict-of-interest and invention-assignment clauses before you start. Keep the side work off company time and off the company laptop.
• Some states protect off-duty work. Colorado makes it illegal to fire someone for lawful activity off the premises during nonworking hours. The exceptions are bona fide job requirements and avoiding a conflict of interest or its appearance. California also protects lawful off-duty conduct. In both states, an employer can still act on a real conflict of interest. In California, it can also discipline you for lateness or poor work caused by a second job.
• Invention-assignment clauses have limits in California and several other states. Those limits cover work done entirely on your own time with your own equipment. They don’t cover anything related to the employer’s business.
• The FTC’s noncompete ban is gone. A court vacated it, and in September 2025 the FTC dropped its appeals. Noncompetes now come down to state law and your contract.
• Two full-time jobs at once carries the most contract and timekeeping risk. No authoritative data exists on how often it goes wrong.

Platform fine print

• Amazon Flex: 21 or older, a valid license, a qualifying vehicle and a smartphone.
• DoorDash:
  • Minimum age is 18 in most states, 19 in some (including Arizona, Florida and Texas), and 21 for new applicants in California.
  • You need a US government ID and a Social Security number. You also need to pass a background check and an SSN trace.
  • DoorDash’s insurance only covers you while you are actively dashing, so ask your own auto insurer about the time in between.
• Uber rides:
  • One year of US driving experience (three if you are under 25).
  • A four-door vehicle, proof of residency and insurance.

Scams aimed at people who want extra income

Task scams pay small “commissions” for liking videos or rating products in an app. Then they ask you to deposit your own money, often in crypto, to keep going or to withdraw. The FTC’s rule: “Never pay anyone to get paid.” Reported losses to job and employment agency scams rose from $90 million in 2020 to $501 million in 2024.

Verdict in one number

$4.70 an hour. On these assumptions, that is what an evening delivery shift after a full-time job leaves once the car, the unpaid minutes and the tax are paid for, so compare it with overtime and your state’s minimum wage before giving up your evenings.