Commission-Only: The New Way for Companies to Make You Pay to Work for Them
Commission-only roles promise unlimited earnings but deliver unlimited turnover. Here’s what the job ads don’t want you to know.
The world of commission-only employment is a place where you're technically "employed," except in every way that matters. There’s no salary, no safety net, and no sense of irony when your “line manager” says, “We want go-getters,” while quietly hoping you bring your own leads, and laptop.
At a time when jobs are scarce. small companies and pop-up ventures have discovered a cheat code: riskless hiring. Why invest in onboarding, training, or salaries when you can simply call it “entrepreneurial” and convince applicants they’re lucky to be “building something”?
These aren’t jobs in the classical sense. There’s no salary, no benefits, and absolutely no accountability from the employer if things go sideways. It’s not so much a career path as it is a bet. Their idea, with your wallet on the line.
Is it smart business? Technically. Is it moral? Debatable. Is it employment? Not even close.
The Employment Market is Trash, So Let’s Sell Hope Instead
The 2025 job market is an all-you-can-eat buffet of disappointment. Graduates with £40,000 degrees are begging for unpaid internships. Mid-level professionals are rewriting their CVs for the fifth time this quarter, only to be ghosted by startups with “People First” in their mission statements.
And in this climate of underemployment, a familiar character re-emerges: the commission-only job.
And the pitch? It always begins with the classics:
“Unlimited earning potential!”
“Be your own boss!”
“You eat what you kill!”
Sounds empowering... until you translate it:
“We don’t have payroll capacity.”
“Good luck out there.”
“Please generate revenue before we fold.”
These are optimism Ponzi schemes, not businesses. Many of these outfits haven’t decided if they’re selling digital marketing or reinventing wellness through affiliate links. But they all know one thing: if you’re desperate enough, you’ll accept risk that they themselves won’t.
It’s a flawless strategy. Hire 20 people, offer no salary, promise “unlimited upside,” and watch to see who accidentally closes a deal. Keep that one. Thank the rest for “their time and energy.”
If your product is worth backing, you back it. That includes backing the people selling it. A base salary doesn’t mean you’re soft, it means you’re serious.
So when a company says, “We believe in performance,” ask them: whose performance? If they aren’t putting up any cash, the only thing they’re performing is risk transfer disguised as entrepreneurship.
Who Really Wins? (Not You)
Let’s take a quick moment to do something that commission-only job ads never seem to do: look at actual outcomes.
In U.S. real estate a full 62% of new agents earn less than $10,000 in their first two years. The dream? Sure. The reality? A lot of networking events, unpaid weekends, and praying someone needs a condo. You might close a deal eventually, just hopefully before your landlord closes in on you.
In insurance sales, the figures are even more poetic. Up to 90% of new agents quit within three years. These aren’t lazy people. They’re people who showed up with a tie and ambition, only to realise “unlimited earning potential” doesn’t cover the petrol for unpaid house calls.
In multi-level marketing, most participants never earn more than £5,000. Many lose money. A few might accidentally profit. The rest now own enough scented wax to fumigate a primary school.
If you removed the top 10% of earners, the entire model collapses into what academics call a “steaming heap of broken dreams.”
So who actually wins?
🤑 Founders. Those who use commission-only as a no-cost validation strategy get free labor, free outreach, and free lessons on why their product isn't selling.
🎯 Top 1% reps. They were always going to close deals. They could sell freezers to penguins. Now they get a higher slice, while everyone else gets performance anxiety.
For everyone else, it’s mostly unpaid sales training. And maybe, if you're lucky, a LinkedIn post congratulating you on "grit" before you're quietly replaced
Skin in the Game… but Just Yours, Thanks
Here’s the part where it gets truly inspirational. Many commission-only companies, will explain that they “believe in shared success.” It's a lovely sentiment. Heartwarming, even.
Until you ask what exactly they’re sharing.
Because it’s not risk. That’s yours. All of it.
What they’re really offering is a commitment-optional arrangement. You’ll provide your time, energy, network, travel, and personal laptop while they sit back in a coffee shop, waiting to see who miraculously sells something.
In a genuine business, risk and reward are balanced.
Enterprise SaaS roles come with a base and commission, usually split 50/50 or 60/40.
Fintech firms do the same.
Consumer brands? Still paying salaries.
Investment firms, notorious for their cold-blooded bonus culture, at least throw in a draw and health coverage.
So if this product is a sure thing, and if success is inevitable, why doesn’t the company put up a single pound of certainty?
The truth is simple: they don’t believe in it enough to bet on it. But they’ll happily let you.
It’s a quiet kind of cowardice wrapped in entrepreneurial language. They want people to act like founders, but be paid like freelancers... if at all.
If you want someone to sell like they own the business, pay them like they belong in it. Not like someone loitering near the cash register hoping a customer wanders in.
“Unlimited Earning Potential”: The Only Thing That’s Truly Unlimited Is Turnover
One of the many spiritual features of commission-only roles is the worship of “unlimited earning potential.” It’s whispered in job ads, shouted in Zoom interviews, and slapped onto pitch decks like it’s a substitute for an actual comp plan.
“Imagine what you could earn,” they tell you.
“Imagine,” they insist again, this time with a graphic of a smiling rep holding a novelty cheque.
“Just imagine,” they mutter, as your bank balance hits single digits and your groceries start coming from the back of your cupboard.
This fantasy leans heavily on the myth of the outlier; the one rep who made six figures in their first year. What they rarely disclose is that this person came in with ten years of experience, their own client book, and a well-fed Rolodex.
For everyone else, the outcome is more predictable: they leave. Quickly.
Turnover in these roles is sky high. It’s the business model. Hire a batch, promise the moon, keep whoever sells something, and rotate the rest out before they ask too many questions.
Burnout is real. You can only be told to “believe in yourself” so many times before you start believing in a regular paycheck instead.
The trick is subtle: these companies make the opportunity sound exclusive, as if you’ve been chosen. What companies rarely say out loud:
“We hope to find one rainmaker out of 15 applicants. The rest? Let’s just say your sacrifice is appreciated.”
It’s not a job. It’s a gamble. And the house always wins.
Look, there are exceptions. Some commission-only roles are structured thoughtfully. Some include a draw. Some industries genuinely align with this model, but even they offer better outcomes when training, brand, and lead support exist.
But most of the time?
Commission-only is not a role. It’s unpaid product-market fit testing masquerading as employment. It’s how a company experiments with growth
This matters more now than ever. In a fragile job market, people are more likely to say yes to anything with a pulse. Which is exactly what some employers are counting on.
So here’s a simple test: If you’re being offered a job that pays only when they win, but never when you lose... If you’re being told to “prove yourself” while they provide no base, no pipeline, and no training... If the job requires you to behave like an employee, but you get none of the rights of one...
Then you’re not an employee.
You’re the experiment.
At StratEx - Indonesia Business Advisory we work with employers to professionalize hiring, comp, and retention across growing Indonesian firms. Contact us if you're interested in structures that attract, retain, and reward real talent.