I started this new position about a month ago. It pays a very low salary (almost nothing), but then pays “commission”. It's a complicated calculation for commission, but basically it's a combination of work output, client relationship scores, and business deals.
I was skeptical about this pay structure, but the hiring manager assured me that the AVERAGE employee made above $170k in commissions last year. I'm pretty good at what I do, so I figured if I could at least do average, I would be raking in the dough!
Well, after working there for about a month, I realized that my commissions are on target for a ridiculously low amount. I've pulled in about $1k this first month, so that puts me on track for about $12k for the year. At first, I thought I was just doing miserably. But after asking around and to other people on my team, it turns out everybody else I know is making around the same range ($10k – $20k/year in commissions).
Furious, I challenged my boss today and accused him of lying in the interview. He claimed to be telling the truth and offered to show me the stats from last year. He redacted the names (so I don't know who is who), but the top employee made a whopping $7.5 MILLION in commissions last year. The second highest made $32k. Everybody else made less than $25k.
He showed me the math, and sure enough, the average is $172k/year per employee. FML!
Lesson of the story? Be aware of outliers, kids!