Moving from hourly pay to commission or flat rate
Switching from a steady hourly wage to a commission-only or flat-rate compensation structure creates uncertainty because people with hourly backgrounds have no prior experience with these systems. Without knowing what to expect from the new pay structure, workers are left wondering how it will actually look compared to what they are used to.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Staying on hourly pay until ready to slow down career-wise.Did this help you?
- 2Using the job temporarily to gain experience before finding a better paying positionDid this help you?
- 3Switching to independent shops with straight time or higher flat rate payDid this help you?
- 4Moving to related fields like material handling or heavy equipment repairDid this help you?
- 5Asking colleagues or online communities for information on how different pay structures work.Did this help you?
- 6Moving to northeastern states with stronger unions and better compensationDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“many of us down here have seen it coming for a while: base salary to performance base. There are districts in Texas that have already done away with a base salary, and have moved towards performance based salary. Here, your salary would fluctuate based on the number of students who improved and/or actually passed STAAR (State standardized test).”source ↗
“Possibly getting hired at a new company and they only do commission, i’ve never had experience in this and wondering what people think and have experienced in this compared to hourly.”source ↗
“Got hired at Firestone at 19 an hour flat rate they don’t do hourly at this shop anybody worked for Firestone and can give me the run down on what it will be like? I’ve never went flat rate before either I was just a regular tech doing oil and other basic maintenance. Would appreciate any feedback on how it will look for me there thanks”source ↗