Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
Professional Employer Organization Revenue Benchmark
A professional employer organization co-employs the workers of its client companies, running their payroll, benefits, workers' compensation and human resources compliance for a fee while the clients direct the day-to-day work. Because the co-employed workforce sits on the PEO's payroll and its wages pass through the PEO's billings, the revenue and employee figures on this page describe a very different business from a payroll bureau.
Average Professional Employer Organization Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census
The 2022 Economic Census counts every professional employer organization with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts, which include the wages of co-employed worksite employees that a PEO bills through to its clients. Dividing that total by the number of establishments gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.
≈$48,880,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment
4,048
Employer establishments in the United States, 2022
as published $197.9 billion
Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022
How this is calculated: about $197.9 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 4,048 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $48,880,000 per employer establishment.
Scope: Professional Employer Organizations, NAICS 561330. The category covers professional employer organizations that co-employ client worksite employees and handle their payroll, benefits and human resources under contract. Payroll services without co-employment and staffing agencies are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 5613: 561311 Employment Placement Agencies; 561312 Executive Search Services; 561320 Temporary Help Services. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.
Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026
Employer Establishments at Year Five Varies by cohort
Employment Services, NAICS 5613, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.
55.4%the year-five count as a share of the starting count
Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 48.6 to 69.1 percent. This benchmark covers Employment Services, NAICS 5613, as a whole, and this category accounts for 4,048 of the 56,763 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.
Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data
Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual payroll share of receipts, United States | ≈77% |
Payroll share of receipts, Professional Employer Organizations, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
Approximately 77.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a high share that is expected for this category, because the wages of co-employed worksite employees are counted in the PEO's payroll and pass through its billings.
Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and revenue here includes worksite wages billed through to clients, so neither the payroll share nor the employee count describes a PEO's own office staff.
Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data
How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid employees per employer establishment | 738.4 |
| Employer establishments per firm | 1.48 |
Scale and ownership, Professional Employer Organizations, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
The average establishment employed about 738.4 people, and the industry averaged 1.5 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. The employees per establishment figure is far above what an office of a few dozen desks would suggest because co-employed worksite employees are counted in the PEO's headcount even though they work at client companies.
These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.
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Data Source Notice
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.
Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis
Professional Employer Organization: how co-employment changes what every number on this page means.
Before you rely on this benchmark
- Why is the employee count so high? A PEO typically pays worksite employees and handles payroll and employment-tax functions under a service or co-employment arrangement while the client directs day-to-day work, so the census headcount includes people working at many client sites rather than in the PEO's own office. Most of the employees per establishment shown above are co-employed worksite staff.
- Why is the payroll share so high? Worksite wages are paid by the PEO and billed back to clients, so most of a PEO's receipts are wages passing through. A payroll share of this size reflects that pass-through and says nothing about the PEO's own margin.
- What does the PEO actually earn? The PEO's own income is the administrative fee, typically a percentage of payroll or a fee per employee, plus any margin on benefits and workers' compensation. That fee is a small part of the receipts shown here, and the census does not separate it.
- Who is the client? Small and mid-sized employers use PEOs to access benefits, compliance help and payroll at scale, and a PEO's revenue rises and falls with its clients' headcounts and wages. Client churn moves the numbers more than pricing does.
- How is a PEO different from a payroll service? A payroll service processes wages for an employer that remains the sole employer, while a PEO takes on payroll, employment-tax and benefits functions for worksite employees under a co-employment arrangement, with certified PEOs subject to specific federal employment-tax treatment. Payroll services are counted in a separate category with far lower revenue and payroll shares.
- Which rules apply? PEOs are licensed or registered in many states and can seek federal certification for tax purposes, and they carry obligations for wages, benefits and workers' compensation across every client. Compliance is the core of the service and a permanent cost.
Sources and Methodology
Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.
The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each PEO office with paid staff, and the establishment's payroll and employees include the co-employed worksite workforce. Payroll services without co-employment and staffing agencies are counted in separate categories.