Maybe it is the car dealer who talked their parents into the wrong car.
Or the insurance agent who got their grandparents the right policy at the right time.
Commission work in the 80s could go either way.
The income potential attracted talented, driven people.
The incentive structure sometimes pushed them in directions nobody was proud of.
That tension is what made these jobs so hard to forget.
1. Car Salesperson
In the 1980s, buying a car meant walking onto a lot and being met by someone on straight commission.
Car salespeople had a reputation that was almost universally known — and not always flattering.
By the mid-1980s, the U.S. auto industry employed more than 200,000 dealership salespeople, the vast majority paid on commission.
The high-pressure tactics that came with commission selling made many buyers deeply uncomfortable.
But the best salespeople genuinely knew their product and built lasting customer relationships.
Opinions on the job ranged from “best career I ever had” to “I would never do it again.”
Why It’s On This List: Car sales in the 80s was the defining commission job of the era. The tactics, the culture, and the income swings made it one of the most polarizing careers in America.
2. Real Estate Agent
The 1980s real estate market was a rollercoaster, and agents rode every twist of it on pure commission.
When the market was hot, agents made extraordinary money. When it cooled, so did their income.
The number of licensed real estate agents in the U.S. grew rapidly through the early 1980s as housing prices rose.
Many people entered the field thinking it would be easy money.
But here’s the catch: the hours were long, the rejections were constant, and the income was never guaranteed.
Those who survived learned quickly that real estate rewards persistence far more than charm.
Why It’s On This List: Real estate agents in the 80s lived the full spectrum of commission life — feast and famine in the same year. Their experience shaped how the public thought about commission work in general.
3. Insurance Salesperson
Selling insurance in the 1980s was one of the most common commission-based careers in the country.
Companies recruited heavily, promising strong income potential and flexible hours.
The life insurance industry alone employed hundreds of thousands of commission-based agents throughout the decade.
Public opinion on insurance sales was complicated.
Many people saw agents as pushy and self-serving. Others had agents who genuinely changed their family’s financial future.
The gap between those two experiences was exactly why this career generated such strong opinions.
Why It’s On This List: Insurance sales in the 80s was simultaneously one of the most accessible and most debated commission careers. How you felt about it depended almost entirely on which agent you had dealt with.
4. Stock Broker
The 1980s stock market boom made stockbrokers into cultural figures.
Commission-based brokers earned a percentage of every trade they executed, which meant the incentive to churn accounts was real.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average more than tripled between 1980 and 1987, creating a frenzy of trading activity.
That’s why brokers could make enormous incomes — and why some pushed clients into trades that served the broker more than the client.
The movie Wall Street in 1987 captured the public’s complicated feelings about the profession perfectly.
Commission-based brokerage eventually gave way to fee-based advising, partly because of the conflicts it created.
Why It’s On This List: The 80s stockbroker was the commission job that captured the era’s whole personality — ambitious, lucrative, and ethically murky all at once.
5. Door-to-Door Salesperson
Door-to-door selling was still a real and significant industry in the 1980s.
Companies like Avon, Amway, Fuller Brush, and Encyclopedia Britannica all relied heavily on commission-based home sales forces.
At its peak in the 1980s, Avon had more than a million sales representatives in the U.S. alone.
Opinions on the job were sharply divided.
Some families loved having a trusted Avon lady or encyclopedia salesman they had known for years.
Others found the knock at the door annoying and the pressure uncomfortable.
Why It’s On This List: Door-to-door selling was a genuinely debated career in the 80s. It blurred the line between independent entrepreneurship and corporate sales, and people had very strong feelings about it on both sides.
6. Telemarketer
Telemarketing exploded as a commission career in the 1980s.
Advances in phone technology and the growth of call centers created an entirely new industry almost overnight.
By the late 1980s, the telemarketing industry employed an estimated 4 to 5 million Americans.
Commission-based telemarketers could make good money in a good week — and almost nothing in a bad one.
Public opinion was almost universally negative from the consumer side.
But the people who did the work often defended it as a real job that required skill, resilience, and thick skin.
Why It’s On This List: Telemarketing in the 80s was the most controversial commission job of the decade. Everyone had an opinion on it, and almost nobody who was not doing it had a kind one.
7. Retail Salesperson on Commission
In the 1980s, commission-based retail sales were common in department stores, electronics shops, and furniture stores.
Salespeople on the floor earned a base wage plus a percentage of every sale they closed.
This created some of the best and worst shopping experiences of the era, depending on who you got.
The best commission salespeople in retail were genuinely helpful and deeply knowledgeable about what they sold.
The worst were aggressive, dishonest, and only interested in their cut.
Shoppers in the 80s quickly learned to read the room when they walked onto a commission floor.
Why It’s On This List: Commission-based retail sales shaped the shopping culture of the 80s. Whether you loved it or hated it depended on the salesperson you met, and people remembered both kinds vividly.
8. Travel Agent
Travel agents in the 1980s earned their income through commissions paid by airlines, hotels, and tour operators.
It was a well-respected profession that required genuine expertise.
At the industry’s peak in the 1980s, there were approximately 30,000 travel agencies operating in the United States.
People relied on agents because booking a trip on your own was genuinely complicated without the internet.
But critics argued that commission structures sometimes pushed agents toward recommending what paid best, not what was best for the client.
The internet eventually eliminated most of the industry, but in the 80s it was a trusted and valued profession.
Why It’s On This List: Travel agents occupied an interesting position in the commission world — genuinely useful and respected, but still subject to the conflicts that all commission work creates. Their near-disappearance is one of the internet’s most complete career eliminations.
9. Pharmaceutical Sales Representative
Pharmaceutical sales in the 1980s was a highly coveted commission career.
Reps were typically well-educated, well-paid, and drove company cars to doctor’s offices with bags of samples and sales targets.
The pharmaceutical industry’s marketing spending exploded in the 1980s as blockbuster drugs created enormous commission opportunities.
Opinions on the job were complex.
Many reps were seen as providing useful education to busy doctors.
Others were criticized for using gifts, meals, and relationship-building to influence prescribing habits in ways that did not always serve patients.
Why It’s On This List: Pharmaceutical sales in the 80s sat at the intersection of medicine, marketing, and ethics. It was one of the most debated commission careers precisely because the stakes of the product were so high.
10. Advertising Sales Representative
Selling advertising space in the 1980s was a commission-heavy career in newspapers, radio, and the growing cable TV industry.
Ad sales reps earned a percentage of the contracts they signed, which meant incomes varied wildly.
The 1980s saw advertising spending in the U.S. more than double as cable television opened new channels for reaching consumers.
The best ad sales reps were relationship builders who understood their clients’ businesses as well as the media they were selling.
But the commission structure also rewarded overselling, which created tension between reps and clients.
Opinions in the industry were clear: good ad reps were invaluable, and bad ones were everywhere.
Why It’s On This List: Ad sales in the 80s was the engine of the media boom. Commission-based reps drove the growth of cable, radio, and print advertising in ways that reshaped how Americans consumed media.
11. Mortgage Broker
The 1980s housing market created enormous demand for mortgage brokers.
These commission-based professionals connected borrowers with lenders and earned a fee on each deal they closed.
Interest rates hit historic highs of nearly 18% in 1981 before gradually declining, creating massive refinancing activity as rates fell.
A good mortgage broker could save a family thousands of dollars by finding the right loan.
A bad one could steer them into a product that looked good on paper but cost them dearly over time.
The commission structure made both outcomes possible, and public opinion reflected that reality.
Why It’s On This List: Mortgage brokers in the 80s navigated one of the most volatile interest rate environments in U.S. history. Their commission-based income created both heroes and cautionary tales.
12. Multilevel Marketing Distributor
The 1980s saw a massive expansion of multilevel marketing, or MLM, companies.
Amway, Herbalife, and others recruited millions of Americans with promises of unlimited income from building a downline of distributors.
Herbalife went public in 1986 and reported rapid growth, fueling intense debate about whether MLM was a legitimate business model or a pyramid scheme.
True believers in the model could point to real success stories.
Critics pointed to the vast majority of participants who made little or nothing.
MLMs became one of the most debated commission structures of the entire decade.
Why It’s On This List: MLM was the most controversial commission model of the 80s. It promised financial freedom to millions and delivered it to very few, and the debate about whether it was opportunity or exploitation has never fully resolved.
13. Financial Planner
Financial planning emerged as a distinct profession in the 1980s, and many practitioners worked on commission.
They sold investment products, insurance, and retirement plans, earning a percentage of whatever they placed.
The Certified Financial Planner credential was established to bring standards to an industry that had very few.
But commission-based financial planning created an inherent conflict: the plan that was best for the advisor was not always best for the client.
That’s why the debate about whether financial planners should be commission-based or fee-only became one of the defining arguments of the decade.
It is still not fully resolved today.
Why It’s On This List: Commission-based financial planning in the 80s raised important questions about who the advisor was really working for. Those questions shaped the entire financial services industry going forward.
14. Timeshare Salesperson
Timeshare selling exploded in the 1980s as resort developers discovered a powerful new business model.
Commission-based salespeople worked in high-pressure environments, often offering free gifts or stays to get potential buyers to sit through a presentation.
The U.S. timeshare industry grew from a small niche in the 1970s to a multi-billion dollar industry by the late 1980s.
Salespeople could make extraordinary commissions on a single sale.
Buyers, on the other hand, often felt they had been pressured into a purchase they came to regret.
Few commission sales environments generated more conflicted feelings on both sides of the table.
Why It’s On This List: Timeshare sales in the 80s became a symbol of high-pressure commission selling at its most intense. The people who did it, and the people who bought, rarely had the same story.
15. Office Equipment Salesperson
Selling office equipment in the 1980s was a booming commission career.
Fax machines, copiers, early computers, and phone systems were all in enormous demand as businesses modernized.
Xerox was famous in the 80s for having one of the most rigorous and effective sales training programs in corporate America.
Commission salespeople in office equipment were often young, ambitious, and highly trained.
Many used the field as a launching pad for broader sales careers.
Opinions on them were generally positive because they were selling things businesses genuinely needed.
Why It’s On This List: Office equipment sales in the 80s was commission work that built careers. Companies like Xerox turned a generation of sales professionals into some of the most skilled salespeople in any industry.
16. Jewelry Salesperson
Commission-based jewelry sales in the 1980s was a high-stakes, high-reward environment.
Sales floors at major chains like Zales and Kay Jewelers ran entirely on commission.
Engagement rings and anniversary gifts could generate commissions of hundreds of dollars on a single sale.
The emotional nature of the purchase made customers both vulnerable and appreciative of good guidance.
Salespeople who were honest and helpful built loyal customers who came back for every milestone purchase.
Those who pushed unnecessary upgrades or used pressure tactics left lasting bad impressions.
Why It’s On This List: Commission jewelry sales in the 80s put salespeople at the intersection of emotion and money. The best of them made buying a ring a memorable experience. The worst made it a warning story.
17. Gym Membership Salesperson
The fitness boom of the 1980s created a whole new commission sales category: gym memberships.
Health clubs multiplied rapidly across the country, and most relied on commission-based salespeople to sign members.
The fitness industry grew from under $1 billion to nearly $6 billion in annual revenues during the 1980s.
Salespeople were trained to close hard and sign long contracts before enthusiasm faded.
Many members signed up in January and stopped going by March — but the contract kept billing them.
Public frustration with aggressive gym sales tactics led to new consumer protection laws in several states.
Why It’s On This List: Gym membership sales in the 80s combined the fitness craze with some of the most criticized commission tactics of the era. The industry’s reputation for hard sells and hard-to-cancel contracts shaped consumer protection legislation.
18. Boat and RV Salesperson
The prosperity of the early-to-mid 1980s fueled a boom in recreational vehicles and boats.
Commission salespeople at dealerships could earn significant income on these high-ticket purchases.
RV shipments reached a then-record high of over 400,000 units in 1988 as consumer confidence peaked.
Buyers often came in excited about a lifestyle, which made them both enthusiastic and susceptible to upselling.
Good salespeople matched customers to the right product and built lasting dealership loyalty.
Others loaded up buyers with options and financing that stretched budgets dangerously thin.
Why It’s On This List: Boat and RV sales in the 80s captured the consumer optimism of the era. The commission dynamics in these high-ticket categories produced the same range of experiences as car sales — but with bigger price tags.
19. Home Improvement Salesperson
The 1980s home improvement market was thriving, and commission-based in-home salespeople were everywhere.
Companies sent representatives to homes to sell windows, siding, roofing, kitchens, and security systems on the spot.
The in-home sales model relied heavily on creating urgency and closing the deal before the homeowner had time to compare prices.
That approach made the job one of the most criticized commission sales environments of the decade.
Homeowners sometimes signed contracts they later regretted, and complaints to consumer agencies were common.
But those who received quality products and honest service often remained loyal customers for years.
Why It’s On This List: In-home sales was one of the most debated commission environments of the 80s. The gap between the best and worst practitioners was enormous, and consumers felt it directly in their living rooms.
20. Recruiter and Headhunter
Executive recruiters and employment agency headhunters worked on commission in the 1980s as the corporate job market expanded rapidly.
A successful placement could earn a recruiter a fee equal to 20 to 30 percent of the hired candidate’s first-year salary.
The growth of corporate America through the early 80s made recruiting one of the most lucrative commission careers available.
Opinions on headhunters were decidedly mixed.
Candidates liked them when they opened doors to opportunities they would never have found on their own.
Companies questioned whether the commission structure encouraged placing the available candidate over the right one.
Why It’s On This List: Recruiting on commission in the 80s was a career that shaped the entire employment market. Headhunters moved talent through corporate America at scale — and the commissions they earned reflected exactly how much that mattered.