In addition to the salaried employee, self-employment (including self-employment with employees and own-account workers)is another important mode of job participation for migrants. Based on the data of 2016 national migrants survey, this paper uses Mlogit model to examine the determination mechanism of self-employment, and measures the average and non-linear income difference by propensity score matching and unconditional quantile treatment effect model respectively. The results indicate that: 1) Education is conducive to self-employment with employees instead of own-account workers. Males are more likely to be self-employed than females, and individual's hukou status represents insignificant relationship with self-employment. The professional technicians do not tend to be self-employed, while the unskilled labor in the service industry is more likely to be self-employed. 2) Self-employment with employees enjoys the highest income level on average, followed by own-account workers and salaried employees. Particularly, such income difference is wider in more developed regions. 3) Relative to salaried employees, the income of the two types of self-employment rises with income levels, and self-employment with employees enjoys the widest income gap. The income difference between different labor participation modes is mainly caused by varied individual endowments.