What OTE means in sales, and how commission plans really pay

OTE is the pay a sales job promises at exactly 100% of quota. This guide shows how that figure is built, how its variable part is earned and paid, and how to judge it before you sign.

Fewer than half of account executives reach their annual quota. The Bridge Group's 2026 study of 158 B2B companies counted 48% of AEs at quota, down from 51% two years earlier - The Bridge Group. Among SDRs the share was 60% in the firm's 2025 study, which it called the lowest in the history of its research - The Bridge Group.

Put those two facts next to the headline of almost every sales posting and the problem is plain. OTE (on-target earnings) is the number recruiters lead with, and it is a true number: it is what the plan pays when you land exactly on your target. But it is a target, not a salary. Half of it, or a third of it, or a fifth of it depending on the seat, is paid only when deals close, and the rules that turn closed deals into money sit in a document most candidates first see after they have already said yes.

This guide takes OTE apart. It covers the base and variable split for each kind of sales seat, how quota is set against OTE, how commission is calculated, the accelerators, thresholds and caps that bend the payout curve, ramp periods and draws, clawbacks, and the US laws that decide what an employer must write down and publish. It ends with a method for reading OTE in a posting and the questions to settle before you sign the plan. Every outside figure links to where it is published. Every pay figure is read live from the openings on this board, so it is today's, not the day this was written.

Contents

1. OTE in one line, and what that line leaves out
2. Base and variable: the pay mix by seat
3. Quota: the yardstick for the variable
4. How the commission itself is calculated
5. Accelerators, decelerators, thresholds and caps
6. Expected earnings: OTE weighted by the odds
7. Ramp, draws and guarantees for new hires
8. When commission is earned, paid and taken back
9. SPIFs, bonuses and equity: the rest of the package
10. The law: written plans, overtime and pay in postings
11. Reading OTE in a job posting
12. Questions to settle before you sign the plan
13. Two offers side by side: a worked comparison
14. Quick answers on OTE

1. OTE in one line, and what that line leaves out

The definition is short. OTE = base salary + target variable pay, where target variable is what the plan pays at 100% attainment of quota. CaptivateIQ, which builds commission software, puts the distinction in two lines in its guide: OTE is a projection, total compensation is actual - CaptivateIQ. A seller who finishes the year at 90% of quota on a straight-line plan earns 90% of the variable and misses OTE; one who finishes at 120% on a plan with accelerators earns more than OTE.

That one line hides four assumptions, and each one is a place where two offers with the same OTE can pay very differently. The first is the split: how much of the OTE is fixed and how much depends on results. The second is the quota: how large the target is relative to the pay, and whether people actually reach it. The third is the payout curve: what the plan pays at 70%, 100% or 150% of quota, which is a design choice, not a law of nature. The fourth is timing and conditions: when a commission counts as earned, when it is paid, and when it can be taken back.

Why this matters: OTE is the figure that gets compared across offers, posted on job boards and quoted in salary surveys, so it is the figure employers have the most reason to make look good. A higher OTE paired with a harder quota can pay less than a lower OTE with a quota most of the team hits. How to apply it: treat OTE as the label on the box and read the four assumptions as the contents. The rest of this guide is a tour of those contents, in the order a comp plan is usually written.

One more distinction belongs at the start. Some employers say OTE, some say target total compensation (TTC) or on-target compensation, and some just say "base plus commission". In practice these mean the same thing. What matters is whether the posting states both parts. A posting that gives a range "including commission" without saying how much is base tells you very little, and section 11 explains how to read one.

2. Base and variable: the pay mix by seat

The pay mix is the ratio of base salary to target variable inside OTE, written base first: a 60/40 mix means 60% of OTE is salary and 40% is earned through results. The mix is not random. It follows a simple principle that comp designers apply everywhere: the more directly a seat's own actions decide whether revenue arrives, the more of its pay is put at risk. A closer who runs the deal from first call to signature carries a heavy variable; a seat that influences many deals without owning any carries a light one.

The published benchmarks line up with that principle. The Bridge Group's 2025 SDR study, drawn from 351 B2B companies, found a median mix of 68:32 for sales development reps - The Bridge Group. Its 2024 account executive study, covering more than 170 B2B SaaS companies, found 53:47 for AEs, close to an even split - The Bridge Group. For sales engineers, the PreSales Collective names 80/20 as the most common ratio, with some teams at 70/30 or 90/10 - PreSales Collective. CaptivateIQ's guide gives account managers roughly 20% variable and SDRs around 30% - CaptivateIQ.

Read the table as a range of normal, not a rule. A field seller of medical devices may run 60/40 or richer in variable, a transactional inside role can run 50/50 with a low base, and a customer success seat at one company can be all salary while another pays a real commission on upsells. The question the table helps you ask is whether an offer is unusual for its seat. An SDR role at 50/50 puts more of your rent at risk than the market median; a sales engineer role at 60/40 means you are being paid like a closer, so ask what you are expected to close.

Sales managers deserve a separate note because their mix changes with the job. A first-line manager's variable is almost always tied to the team's number, not to deals they close themselves, so a manager's real exposure is to the attainment of six or eight other people and to the quality of the hiring that put them there. A manager who inherits a team where most reps are below plan is taking an OTE that the current team cannot pay. The question to ask is how many of the reps you would manage hit plan last year, and how many seats are open.

Base also matters for reasons beyond risk. Benefits such as 401(k) matching, life insurance multiples and some severance formulas are often calculated on base salary only, and a mortgage lender will usually treat salary differently from commission until you can show a two-year history of it. Two offers with the same OTE and different mixes are not equal even if you expect to hit plan: the one with the higher base is worth more on the days things go wrong. How to apply it: when you compare offers, write the base and the target variable as two numbers, never only the sum.

On this board the pay figure for each opening is the one the employer published, most often the base range and, where the posting gives it, the OTE as well. Today the median posted pay across every open role is $173k/yr, and typical posted pay runs from $128k/yr to $336k/yr; the methodology page defines that band, and the pay page breaks it down by role. Those are base and OTE figures as employers wrote them, which is why the next sections matter: the posting gives you the label, the plan gives you the mechanics.

3. Quota: the yardstick for the variable

Quota is the result you are paid to deliver in a period: bookings for an AE, qualified meetings or pipeline for an SDR, renewed and expanded revenue for an account manager. Quotas are usually annual and split into quarters or months, and the variable is paid as a share of attainment against them. The plan's generosity depends far more on the size of the quota than on the size of the OTE, because the quota decides how likely you are to earn the variable at all.

The cleanest way to compare quota across companies is the quota-to-OTE ratio: annual quota divided by annual OTE. The Bridge Group's 2026 AE study found a median of 4.6x, up from 4.2x in 2024, and a median AE quota of $960K in annual contract value - The Bridge Group. The firm's commentary on the 2024 edition noted that OTE had grown faster than quota for years, at more than 5% a year against about 2% for quotas since 2012, which is what had reshaped the ratio - The Bridge Group. A rising ratio means each dollar of pay has to be covered by more sold revenue.

The ratio lets you sanity-check a posting without knowing anything else about the company. If a role advertises an OTE and the recruiter tells you the annual quota, divide one by the other. A ratio well above the median is not automatically bad, since a company with a famous brand, a short sales cycle and plenty of inbound demand can support a heavier quota, but it shifts the burden of proof to the employer. The question becomes how many people on the team actually reached that number last year.

SDR quotas are counted differently, in meetings or opportunities rather than revenue. The 2025 Bridge Group study put the global median monthly quota at 10 held first meetings (its "Stage 0"), with teams that hand over less-qualified meetings carrying higher counts (16) and teams that hand over fully qualified opportunities carrying fewer (9) - The Bridge Group. The same study counted a median of 112 total activities a day across phone, email, LinkedIn and text, which is the daily work that produces those monthly meetings. When you compare SDR roles, ask what counts as a meeting: booked, held, or accepted by the AE as qualified. Each step down the list is harder to hit.

Quota also has a shape across the year. Some plans spread it evenly by quarter; others back-load it so the later quarters carry more, often to match a seasonal buying cycle or a growth plan the board approved. Back-loading is not a trick by itself, but it means early-year attainment looks better than it will be, and it means a rep who leaves in the summer has been paid on the easy part of the year. Ask for the quarterly breakdown, not just the annual number.

Finally, quota is set for the territory, and territories differ. A named-account territory of 40 large companies, a geographic patch of a few states, a vertical such as healthcare or the public sector, and an inbound queue shared with five colleagues are four different jobs with four different chances of hitting the same number. A posting that says "full-cycle AE, mid-market" tells you the segment; it does not tell you whether the territory is new, inherited from a rep who left at 140% or inherited from one who left at 40%. That history is the single best predictor of your first year, and section 12 lists how to ask for it.

4. How the commission itself is calculated

There are two common ways to turn sold revenue into commission, and most plans are a variation on one of them. In a rate-based plan, you earn a fixed percentage of each booking: every dollar of annual contract value closed pays the same rate, from the first deal of the year. In an attainment-based plan, the payout is a share of your target variable equal to your share of quota: reach 60% of quota and you are paid 60% of the target variable. On a simple plan the two give the same answer, because the rate is defined by the plan's own numbers.

That definition is worth knowing by heart, because it lets you check any plan in thirty seconds. The base commission rate = target variable / quota. A plan whose variable is 47% of OTE and whose quota is 4.6 times OTE pays roughly 0.47 / 4.6, or about 10% of bookings at plan. Those two inputs are the 2024 Bridge Group pay mix and its 2026 quota ratio, so the result is an illustration of a median plan, not a quote of one - The Bridge Group, The Bridge Group. If a recruiter quotes you a rate that is far from what the plan's own OTE and quota imply, one of the three numbers is wrong, and you should find out which before you sign.

The base of measurement matters as much as the rate. Software plans usually pay on first-year ACV (annual contract value) or ARR (annual recurring revenue), not on the total value of a multi-year contract, and many exclude one-time services, implementation fees or hardware, or pay them at a lower rate. Some plans pay on gross margin rather than revenue, which is common in distribution, manufacturing and staffing, where the same sale can be profitable or not depending on the price you negotiated. A plan that pays on margin rewards you for holding price; one that pays on revenue does not care. Neither is wrong, but you need to know which one you are reading.

Multi-year deals are a frequent source of confusion. If you close a three-year contract, a plan may credit only the first year's value, credit all three years at a reduced rate, or pay the first year now and later years when they are invoiced. Ask how a multi-year deal is credited, how a deal paid annually in advance compares with one paid monthly, and what happens to your credit if the customer later renegotiates. The answers change your earnings far more than a percentage point of rate.

SDR plans follow the same logic with a different unit. If the target variable is 32% of OTE and the monthly quota is ten qualified meetings, each accepted meeting is worth a tenth of the month's target variable. Many SDR plans add a second component tied to what happens later: a bonus when a meeting the SDR sourced becomes a qualified opportunity or a closed deal. That component is the part of an SDR plan most worth understanding, because it pays on outcomes the SDR does not control and that can take months to arrive.

Split credit is the last mechanic in this section. Deals with two sellers on them, an overlay specialist, a channel partner or a sales engineer often have credit rules: a 50/50 split between two AEs, double credit (each gets full credit, a cost the company absorbs), or credit to the account owner only. Overlay and specialist roles are frequently paid on deals another rep owns, which is fine when the rules are written down and painful when they are decided case by case at quarter end. Ask for the written crediting rules, and ask how often a dispute over them has had to go to a manager.

5. Accelerators, decelerators, thresholds and caps

A plan's payout curve is the line that maps attainment to pay. The simplest curve is a straight line: each 1% of quota earns 1% of target variable. Real plans bend that line in four common ways, and two plans with the same OTE can feel completely different once the bends are drawn. The chart below shows three illustrative curves; the percentages are invented for illustration and are not from any one employer.

Accelerators raise the rate above quota. A common form pays 1.5 or 2 times the base rate on every dollar beyond 100%, sometimes in tiers (1.5x from 100% to 125%, 2x beyond). CaptivateIQ's guide describes accelerators simply as the reward for over-performance - CaptivateIQ. They matter most to strong performers, and they are the mechanism that turns a good year into a great one. On the illustrative accelerated curve, a seller at 150% of quota earns 175% of target variable instead of 150%.

Decelerators do the reverse: they pay a lower rate on attainment below quota, or on the early part of the year, so that a seller is paid less than proportionally until the target is in sight. Thresholds (also called gates or cliffs) pay nothing at all until a minimum is reached, often 50% of quota. CaptivateIQ notes that decelerators protect margin but can erode trust when used carelessly - CaptivateIQ. On the gated curve above (a 50% gate, 0.8 times the rate up to quota and 1.5 times above it), a seller at 75% of quota earns 60% of target variable, not 75%. For someone new to a territory, that gap can be most of a bad year's difference.

Caps limit total variable, usually at a multiple of target such as 200% or 300%. Many comp designers dislike them: CaptivateIQ's authors write that they would push back on capping AE plans in most cases, because a cap tells the best sellers that their extra deals are not worth chasing - CaptivateIQ. A related device is the windfall clause, which lets the company review or reduce commission on an unusually large deal. A windfall clause is not a cap in name, but it works like one on exactly the deal that would have made your year.

Why the curve matters more than the OTE: OTE is a single point on the curve, the one at exactly 100%. Most sellers do not finish exactly there, so most sellers are paid somewhere else on the curve. If you expect to land near plan, a gate and a decelerator cost you real money and an accelerator does little. If you are confident you will beat plan, the accelerator and the absence of a cap are worth more than a higher OTE. How to apply it: ask the hiring manager to tell you what the plan pays at 70%, 100% and 130% of quota. A manager who knows the plan can answer in one sentence; one who cannot is telling you something too.

6. Expected earnings: OTE weighted by the odds

The honest figure to compare across offers is not OTE but expected earnings: the base plus the variable you are likely to earn, given how people in that seat actually perform. It can be written as one formula. Expected earnings = base + (target variable x expected payout share), where the expected payout share is the average, across the team, of what the payout curve pays at each person's attainment.

A worked example, in percentages of OTE so it applies to any plan. Take a 50/50 plan with a straight-line curve and no cap, on a team of ten AEs who finished last year at 40%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 100%, 105%, 110%, 120% and 150% of quota. The average attainment is 92.5%, so the average payout share is 92.5% of target variable, and expected earnings are 50% + (50% x 0.925), or about 96% of OTE. Now put the same team on the gated plan from section 5. The rep at 40% earns no variable at all, everyone between the gate and quota is paid at 0.8 times the rate, and the four reps above quota gain from the 1.5x accelerator. Add it up and the team's average payout share drops to about 77% of target variable, so expected earnings fall to about 88% of OTE: same OTE, same results, eight points less pay for the typical seller.

The team in that example is invented, but the idea behind it is the reason the Bridge Group figures at the top of this guide matter. If roughly half of AEs reach quota in a typical company, then the median seller earns less than OTE in a typical year, and the gap depends on the curve. A plan where 70% of the team reached quota last year is a better offer than a plan with a higher OTE where 30% did, for almost anyone who is not certain they will be in the top third.

The variable is also more volatile than the base, and that has a cost even when the expected value is the same. A plan that pays well on average but can swing by half of the variable from one year to the next asks you to carry that risk on your household budget. Some sellers are well placed to carry it (no dependants, savings, a partner with a steady income); others are not. That is a personal judgment, not a rule, but make it on purpose: decide what base you need, and treat the variable as upside you have to earn, not as income you can already count.

Two numbers make the estimate possible, and both should come from the employer. The first is attainment distribution: how many people in the same seat finished above 100%, between 70% and 100%, and below 70% last year. The second is tenure in seat: whether those people had a full year in the territory or were still ramping. A hiring manager can give you both without disclosing anyone's name, and good ones volunteer them. If you only get "most of the team crushed it last year", ask for the count.

7. Ramp, draws and guarantees for new hires

A new seller is rarely productive on day one. Ramp is the period before a new hire is expected to carry the full quota, and its length depends on the sales cycle. The Bridge Group's 2026 study found average AE ramp of 6.2 months, the longest in the study's history - The Bridge Group. For SDRs, the 2025 study found 3.0 months, the shortest since 2010 - The Bridge Group. A plan that pays full commission only against a full quota from month one would pay a new AE almost nothing for half a year.

Employers bridge that gap in three common ways. A ramped quota reduces the target for the first months (for example 25%, 50% and 75% of a full quarter), so the new seller can earn commission at the normal rate on a smaller number. A guarantee pays some or all of the target variable regardless of results for a fixed period. A draw pays an advance against commission that has not yet been earned. A guarantee is the most generous of the three, and it is the one to ask for when you are moving into a long-cycle segment where your first deal may not close for two quarters.

Draws come in two kinds, and the difference is large. A recoverable draw is an advance the company expects to get back: if commission falls short of the draw, the shortfall is carried forward as a balance against future commission. Salesforce's own explainer describes the shortfall as accruing as a debt the rep pays back, after which the rep keeps all commission - Salesforce. A non-recoverable draw is a floor: if commission falls short, the company pays the difference and does not carry it forward. Ask which kind you are being offered, how long it runs, and, for a recoverable draw, what happens to an unpaid balance if you leave. The answer to that last question depends on the written plan and on state law, so get it in writing.

Ramp interacts with the territory question in section 3. A new hire who inherits a book with deals already in late stages can be productive quickly; one building a new territory from zero needs the full ramp and more. The 2026 Bridge Group study also found that companies now ask for 3.7 years of experience at hire for AE roles, up from 2.7 years in 2022 - The Bridge Group, which is one sign that employers are trying to shorten ramp by hiring people who already know how to sell. If you are moving up from SDR to AE, ask for the ramp schedule in writing and ask how the last two people promoted into the seat did in their first two quarters.

8. When commission is earned, paid and taken back

A commission plan has to define the moment a commission is earned, and the choice matters more than most candidates realize. The common points are signature (the contract is signed), booking (finance accepts the order), invoicing, and payment received from the customer. Each step later in that list protects the company and delays your money. A plan that pays on cash received can leave you waiting months on a customer with slow accounts payable; a plan that pays on signature puts more risk on the company and is usually paired with a clawback.

Payout timing is a separate question from the earning point. Many plans pay monthly, in arrears, on the deals that reached the earning point in the previous month; others pay quarterly, and accelerators are often settled only at quarter or year end, after the final attainment is known. Ask when the first commission check arrives after a deal closes, and whether accelerators are paid as you go or held to the end of the year. A plan that holds the upside to year end and requires you to be employed on the payment date means the best part of your year is paid only if you stay.

A clawback lets the company recover commission already paid when the deal behind it falls through. QuotaPath's glossary describes the typical case: the customer ends the contract within a certain period, and the company deducts the commission from later pay - QuotaPath. Clawback windows are often tied to a customer's first months or first payment, and the plan should state the triggers (cancellation, non-payment, a downgrade) and the window. A clawback with no time limit, or one triggered by events you cannot see or influence, is worth negotiating before you sign.

Taxes are the last surprise on the commission check, and they are not a plan design choice. The IRS treats commissions paid separately from regular wages as supplemental wages, and its 2026 Employer's Tax Guide keeps the flat federal withholding rate on supplemental wages at 22%, rising to 37% on supplemental wages above $1 million in a calendar year - IRS Publication 15. That is withholding, not your final tax: the actual tax is settled when you file. But it means a large commission check can look smaller than you expected, and a refund or a balance due can show up the following spring.

9. SPIFs, bonuses and equity: the rest of the package

OTE covers base and the target variable of the main plan. Several other forms of pay sit outside it, and some of them are worth more than a point of commission rate. The first is the SPIF (sales performance incentive fund, also spelled SPIFF): a short, extra incentive aimed at one behaviour, such as selling a new product, closing before quarter end or winning a target type of customer. QuotaPath describes SPIFs as short-term incentives, usually paid once - QuotaPath. SPIFs are real money but they are discretionary and temporary, so never count them in expected earnings.

Bonuses are the second form, and in some seats they replace commission entirely. Many customer success, sales operations and enablement roles are paid a salary plus a bonus tied to company or team results rather than a commission on individual deals. Where a customer success seat does carry a variable, it is commonly tied to gross revenue retention (the share of recurring revenue kept, ignoring growth) or net revenue retention (the same share after adding expansion and subtracting downgrades and churn). Gainsight's benchmark site explains the difference: gross retention counts only churn and down-sell, so it cannot exceed 100%, while net retention nets those losses against expansion - Gainsight. Ask which one a CSM plan pays on, because a seat paid on net retention is partly a selling job.

Equity is the third. At a venture-backed company, an offer may include stock options or restricted stock units (RSUs), usually vesting over four years. Equity does not appear in OTE and should not be traded for base unless you understand what it is worth and when you could sell it. For options, the questions are the number of shares, the strike price, the vesting schedule and the post-departure exercise window. For RSUs at a public company the value is easier to estimate, but the vesting schedule still decides how much of it you keep if you leave early.

Benefits and expenses close the list. Field roles may come with a car allowance, a phone stipend, travel budgets or club memberships; some employers count a car allowance as part of total compensation in their recruiting copy. Those are real, but they pay for the job rather than for you. A higher base with lower allowances is usually better for you than the reverse, because allowances end when the job does and rarely count toward retirement contributions.

The point of this section is not that the extras are unimportant. It is that they should be valued separately from OTE, with their own conditions. A plan with a modest OTE and a generous, consistent bonus pool can pay more than one with a big OTE and nothing else. How to apply it: list every component of an offer on its own line, mark which ones are guaranteed, which depend on your results, which depend on the company's results and which are discretionary, and compare offers line by line.

10. The law: written plans, overtime and pay in postings

Commission plans are contracts, and several US laws decide what they must say and what employers must publish. This section is a plain-language summary for job seekers, not legal advice, and state rules change: check the current text, or ask an employment lawyer, before relying on any of it in a dispute.

California requires commission plans in writing. Labor Code section 2751 says that when an employment contract for work in California involves commissions, it must be in writing and must set out how commissions are computed and paid. The employer must give the employee a signed copy and get a signed receipt. If a contract expires and both sides keep working under it, its terms are presumed to stay in force until it is replaced or the job ends - California Labor Code § 2751. The section excludes short-term productivity bonuses and some bonus and profit-sharing plans from its definition of commission. In practice, the written plan is the document that decides any argument, which is why it is worth reading before you sign the offer, not after.

Overtime depends on where you sell, not on your title. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the outside sales exemption applies when an employee's primary duty is making sales and the employee is customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer's place of business. The Department of Labor's fact sheet adds that outside sales does not include sales made by mail, telephone or the internet, and that the exemption has no salary test - US Department of Labor. An inside sales rep working from an office or a home office does not qualify for that exemption, so their overtime status depends on other rules, such as whether the role meets a different exemption. If you are offered an inside role that is classified as exempt, it is a fair question to ask which exemption applies.

Several states require pay in the posting, including commission. Colorado's rules, in effect since January 2021, require covered postings to include the pay or pay range and a general description of any bonuses, commissions or other compensation and of benefits - SHRM. Washington's Department of Labor and Industries says postings for jobs that could be filled by a Washington-based employee must disclose the wage scale or salary range and a general description of benefits and other compensation, and its policy lists commissions as other compensation; for a commission-paid job it says the posting should include the rate or rate range, giving "5-8% of net sale price per unit" as an example - Washington L&I.

California's pay scale law, in effect since January 2023 for employers with 15 or more employees, requires the salary or wage range in the posting; the Labor Commissioner's FAQ says bonuses and benefits are not required, but if pay is based on piece rate or commission, the posting must include the commission range the employer reasonably expects to pay - Ogletree Deakins. New York's Department of Labor says employers covered by its pay transparency law must also clearly state when a position is commission-based - New York State Department of Labor.

Why this matters to a job seeker: these laws are the reason so many sales postings now carry a range at all, and they explain why the range is so often the base alone. In most of these states a general description of commission is enough, so an employer can lawfully post a base range and the words "plus commission". How to apply it: when a posting gives only a base, the law has done its part and the rest is yours to ask. On this board, 3,669 of today's openings publish a pay figure; the pay page shows how those figures compare by role and the sales pay report tracks them over time.

11. Reading OTE in a job posting

Sales postings state pay in a handful of recognizable formats, and each one tells you something different. Learn to sort them quickly and you will know which questions to ask in the first call instead of the last. The four formats below cover most of what you will see on the board today, out of 7,992 open roles in total.

Base range only. "Base salary: X to Y, plus commission." This is the most common format in US postings because it satisfies most state laws. It tells you the fixed part and nothing about the variable. Your first question is the target variable at the level you are being considered for, which gives you OTE, and your second is the quota.

OTE range only. "OTE: X to Y." This tells you the total at plan but not the split, which means you cannot tell how much is at risk. Ask for the base and the mix. A range that is very wide usually spans several levels (for example mid-market and enterprise AE in one posting), so ask which end the role is budgeted at.

Base and OTE together. "Base X to Y, OTE A to B." This is the most useful format, because it gives you the mix. Divide the base by the OTE at each end of the range to see the split, and compare it with the table in section 2. A posting with this format is also more likely to have a written plan ready to share.

A single total with "uncapped" or "unlimited earning potential". This is the least informative format, and sometimes a warning sign. Uncapped commission is a real feature of many good plans, but a posting that leads with it and omits the base may be a commission-only or very low-base role. Check the employment type: a 1099 contractor role paid only on commission is a different job from an employee role with a base. If the message reached you outside a normal posting, by text or a messaging app, run it through the scam checker first.

A posting also carries clues about quota and territory, even when it states no numbers. The segment (SMB, mid-market, enterprise, strategic), the deal size or average selling price if given, the sales cycle length, whether the role is inbound or outbound, new logo or install base, and the territory description all tell you how the quota will be earned. "Full-cycle" means you will source some of your own pipeline; "inbound" means the company supplies it. A posting for a new territory in a new market is a building job, and the ramp in section 7 is the question to ask.

Remote and hybrid labels matter for pay too. A remote role may be budgeted at a national range or at a range tied to where you live, and some employers publish several ranges by location tier. If you see a range much lower than expected for a remote role, check whether it is the lowest tier. The remote sales jobs page lists the remote openings on the board, and the salary calculator helps you see what a base and OTE mean in take-home terms.

12. Questions to settle before you sign the plan

The best time to understand a comp plan is before you accept the offer, when the employer is trying to win you. These questions are in rough order of how much they change your earnings. A good hiring manager will answer most of them without hesitation, and the ones they cannot answer are worth taking to the recruiter or to someone already in the seat.

About the number. What is my annual quota, and how is it spread by quarter? How was it set: top-down from a company plan, bottom-up from the territory, or both? What share of people in this seat hit plan last year, and what was the spread of attainment? How many of them had a full year in their territory? Has the quota for this seat gone up for the coming year, and by how much?

About the territory. Is the territory new, inherited or shared? If inherited, how did the last owner finish, and why did they leave? How many accounts, which segment, and is there an existing pipeline I will be credited for? Who else sells into these accounts, and how is credit split?

About the curve. What does the plan pay at 70%, 100% and 130% of quota? Is there a threshold before commission starts? Are there decelerators below quota, accelerators above it, a cap, or a windfall clause? Are accelerators paid as I go, or settled at year end?

About timing and conditions. When is a commission earned: signature, booking, invoice or payment? How soon after a deal closes is it paid? What clawbacks apply, for which events and for how long? Must I be employed on the payment date to receive commission I have already earned? Can the plan change mid-year, and with how much notice?

About ramp. How long is ramp, and what is my quota during it? Is there a guarantee or a draw, and if a draw, is it recoverable? What happens to a recoverable balance if I leave? How did the last two people hired into this seat do in their first two quarters?

Ask for the written plan itself before you accept. In California it must be in writing anyway, and anywhere else a company with a well-run sales team will have one. If the employer will not share the plan until after you start, ask for a summary in the offer letter that states the base, the target variable, the quota and the main mechanics. Then the conversation you had in the interview is written down. If you are still interviewing, the sales interview guide covers when in the loop to raise these questions, and the interview practice tool lets you rehearse asking them.

13. Two offers side by side: a worked comparison

The comparison below shows how the ideas in this guide fit together. The two offers are illustrative, written in percentages of OTE so the conclusion does not depend on any one salary level, and they are set at the same OTE on purpose. On paper they are equal. In practice they are not.

Offer B looks exciting to a confident seller: a richer accelerator and half the pay at risk. But its quota is larger relative to pay, and only about a third of its team hit plan last year. For a seller who expects to land around the middle of the team, Offer A's expected earnings are much closer to its OTE, its base is higher, its ramp is longer and its draw cannot leave a debt. Offer B pays more only if you are confident you will finish well above quota in a territory where most people do not, and its cash-received earning point delays every check.

The general lesson is that the offer you should prefer depends on where you expect to finish on the curve, and that expectation should be based on the team's data, not on how confident you feel in the interview. Strong sellers moving into a territory they know may rationally prefer B. Most people moving into a new company, a new segment or their first closing role should prefer A. Both judgments are easy to make once the plan is on the table; they are impossible to make from OTE alone.

To compare live openings the same way, start with the list of sales roles, which groups the board's openings by seat and shows the pay each publishes, and set up job alerts for the seat and segment you want so new openings with stated pay reach you the day they are posted.

14. Quick answers on OTE

What does OTE stand for in a job posting? On-target earnings: base salary plus the variable pay you would earn at exactly 100% of quota. Some employers write on-target compensation, target total compensation or simply "base plus commission at plan". All of them describe the same point on the payout curve.

Is OTE the same as salary? No. Only the base part is salary, paid whatever your results. The variable part is earned through commission or bonus and can be lower or higher than target. When a recruiter quotes OTE, ask for the base separately; it is the number your budget should rest on.

What is a good base-to-variable split? It depends on the seat. Published medians run around 68:32 for SDRs, 53:47 for AEs and 80/20 for sales engineers (section 2). A good split for you is one close to the norm for the seat, with a base you can live on in a bad quarter.

What happens to my pay if I miss quota? On a straight-line plan you are paid the same share of target variable as your share of quota. Gates and decelerators can push pay below that line (section 5). Missing quota repeatedly also tends to have consequences beyond pay, such as a performance plan, so ask how the company handles a missed year.

Is uncapped commission always better? Uncapped plans reward the best years, and many comp designers argue against caps for closing roles. But a plan can be uncapped and still have a quota most people miss. Look at the whole curve and the team's attainment before you value the absence of a cap.

Can an employer change the comp plan in the middle of the year? Many plans reserve that right, often with notice. Read the plan's amendment clause, and ask whether quotas or territories have changed mid-year in the past two years. A change that cuts commission on deals already closed is the one to watch for.

Do I get my commission if I leave? It depends on the plan's definition of when a commission is earned, on any rule that you must be employed on the payment date, and on the wage law of your state. Ask before you sign and get the answer in the written plan; it is much harder to resolve after you have resigned.

Is OTE quoted before or after tax? Before. Commission paid separately from salary is often withheld at the federal supplemental rate of 22% (section 8), which can make a commission check look smaller than the same amount in salary would. The final tax is settled when you file.

How do I compare a posting's OTE with the market? Start with the pay figures employers publish on the board: today the median posted pay across open roles is $173k/yr, and the pay page breaks that down by seat. Then compare the split, the quota and the team's attainment with the benchmarks in this guide.

This guide reflects published research, statutes and employer practice as of October 2026. Benchmarks change with each edition of the studies cited, and state pay transparency rules are amended from time to time; check the linked source before relying on a figure in a negotiation or a dispute. Pay figures on this page are read from the board's open roles at the moment you load it.