How much pay comes from commission versus base?
№ 156 · Commission vs base earnings distribution
Definition
MetricRealised share of a rep's cash earnings coming from variable pay rather than base
Unit% of realised total cash earnings from variable pay
Stacked bars per rep showing base and commission absolute dollars with total at top. Pull payroll data per rep. Senior reps usually have higher commission share. Imbalance reveals plan issues. Example: R1 $60K base + $40K commission = $100K total; R5 $100K + $100K = $200K.
Benchmarks
| Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|
| 12% or less of realised earnings from variable | 25% to 30% of realised earnings from variable | 45% or more of realised earnings from variable |
B2B SaaS AE role, United States, realised earnings rather than designed on-target earnings, 2024 to 2026 data. Designed mix at target sits at 53:47 base to variable, so realised variable share below that is expected. · The gap between designed mix and realised mix is the point of this chart and it is large. Bridge Group's AE data puts the designed split at 53:47 base to variable on a median OTE of $200K, and RepVue shows enterprise AEs designed at an even 50:50 with a $140K base against a $280K OTE. But with realised attainment near 42.7% per RepVue's Cloud Sales Index, the variable component actually paid is roughly 20% to 22% of OTE, which turns a 53:47 design into something closer to a 72:28 outcome. The published mix figures are therefore design intent, not observed pay, and benchmarking your realised chart against them will always look alarming. The realised figures above are derived by applying observed attainment to designed mix rather than sampled directly, since no publisher reports realised pay mix distributions.
| Category | Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDR | 10% | 32% designed, roughly 20% realised | 40% |
| AE, SMB and mid-market | 12% | 47% designed, roughly 25% realised | 47% |
| Enterprise AE | 10% | 50% designed, roughly 22% realised | 50% |
When it looks bad
Realised variable share sits far below designed mix across most of the team, so a plan sold to candidates as 50:50 pays out like a salary with a lottery ticket attached.
Designed 50:50, realised median 78:22, with two reps above 60% variable and nine below 15%.
What to do about it
- Recalibrate quota until realised mix lands within about 10 points of designed mix. If the plan says 50:50 and the team realises 78:22, the problem is the quota, not the plan, and fixing the plan will not touch it.
- State historical attainment in the offer. RepVue shows about 42% of AEs and 41% of enterprise AEs reaching quota, so a candidate evaluating a $280K OTE at 41% attainment is looking at a very different proposition from the headline, and the reps who discover this after joining are the ones who leave inside a year.
- Check that accelerators are reachable by more than the top few. If only the top tercile ever clears 100%, accelerators function as a top-performer retention tool rather than a team incentive, which is defensible but should be a deliberate decision.
- Separate new logo from renewal and expansion rates as books mature. Bridge Group 2026 shows 38% of AEs now carrying sole or blended renewal and expansion ownership, nearly double 2024, so plans written for a greenfield team increasingly overpay on business that was already won.
Sources
- The Bridge Group Median OTE $190K at 53:47 base to variable, up from $167K in 2022. Median commission rate 11.5% of ACV at full attainment. Quota-to-OTE 3.2x at 25th percentile and 4.8x at 75th. Quotas grew about 2% annually while OTE grew above 5% CAGR. blog.bridgegroupinc.com ↗
- The Bridge Group 48% of reps at quota, down from 51% in 2024. Median AE OTE $200K. Median AE quota $960K at 4.6x quota-to-OTE. Average ramp 6.2 months, highest in study history. Required experience at hire 3.7 years, up from 2.7 in 2022. SaaS median quota $875K. bridgegroupinc.com ↗
- RepVue Median Enterprise AE base $140,000 and OTE $280,000, a 50:50 design. Top performers $673,749 or more. About 41% of Enterprise AEs reach or exceed annual quota. repvue.com ↗
- RepVue Median AE OTE $200,000. Top performers earn $502,796 or more. About 42% of AEs reach or exceed annual quota. repvue.com ↗
- RepVue Cloud Sales Index (reported via QuotaPath) Average quota attainment 42.69% in Q2 2025, meaning 57.31% of reps missed target. quotapath.com ↗
- The Bridge Group 60% of SDRs at quota, lowest on record. Median SDR OTE $80K at 68:32 base to variable. Pipeline per SDR $3.78M, with 50% of respondents between $1.9M and $6.4M. Monthly held-meeting quota median 10 at Stage 0 and 6 converted at Stage 1. Ramp 3.0 months. Attrition 40% median, 21% to 57% interquartile. 4.1 quality conversations per day on 112 total daily activities. bridgegroupinc.com ↗
- Optymyze Reports median commission at 11.5% of bookings at full attainment with typical rates between 11% and 14%. Most B2B plans cluster near 50:50 base to variable, SDRs near 70:30, customer success and sales engineering near 80:20. optymyze.com ↗
- RepVue Individual contributor quota attainment clusters between roughly 40% and 58%, rising with seniority. Moving from SMB to mid-market to enterprise roughly doubles OTE while the share of reps hitting quota falls at every step. Federal and SLED AEs carry the highest attainment across all AE types at 46% and 45%. repvue.com ↗