Commission (remuneration)

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The payment of commission as remuneration for services rendered or products sold is a common way to reward sales people. Payments often will be calculated on the basis of a percentage of the goods sold.

Offering monetary compensation in the form of commission alone, or commission in addition to salary rather than simply a fixed salary, is intended to create a strong incentive for employees to invest maximum effort into their work. Salespeople with very high volumes in real estate, car dealerships, and other businesses can earn lucrative amounts of money, but research revealed that these are not common, and in fact, according to surveys done in the early 2000s^{[citation needed]} on the commission-only salespeople in the United States, only 8% of them are able to earn an annual income of $50,000 or greater, the vast majority, over 50% to be exact, only have an annual income of $10,000 or less.

Common industries where commission is used include car sales, property sales, insurance broking and many other sales jobs.

Controversially, many charity collectors now work on a commission basis.