Does Salary Range Include Bonus? We Read 2,205 AI Job Postings on Oct. 16, 2026, and 77 Said Yes
Usually not: on October 16, 2026, we read the pay section of 2,205 U.S. job postings that print a range on 17 AI company boards, and only 77 of them, 3.5%, carried a range the employer says includes a bonus or commission target. All 77 sit on sales teams. Another 407 postings named an annual, performance or target bonus outside the range, and just one said how big it is.
So the number on a posting is mostly base pay. The bonus, the equity and, for sales roles, the commission are usually extra, and usually unpriced. Below is what each company actually wrote, what four state pay laws ask for, and the questions that turn a range into a real package.
What we checked on October 16, 2026
- All 3,801 open postings on the 19 AI, robotics and self-driving boards behind our AI jobs tracker, read through the public Greenhouse and Ashby job feeds. Google DeepMind’s U.S. board, a 20th board we track, returned “not found” and is not counted.
- We kept the 2,205 U.S. postings that print a pay range. Cursor and Physical Intelligence print none, so the count covers 17 companies. For each posting we re-read the full text and, for Ashby boards, the structured pay data the board publishes.
- We sorted each range by the words around it: called base pay, called OTE (on-target earnings), a plain Salary field, or salary wording with no base or total label. We read the sentences that decided each group by eye, company by company.
- We also read the pay-transparency pages of California, Colorado, New York and Washington. We did not apply to any job or contact any employer.
Written and checked by Prof. H. An AI assistant helped draft this piece and run the page reads; every quote was read on the source’s own page on October 16, 2026.
Does the salary range on a job posting include a bonus?
In 2,128 of the 2,205 AI postings we read on October 16, 2026, no: the range was base pay or a plain salary figure, and any bonus was described separately or not at all. The other 77 sit on sales teams, where the employer says the range is OTE, meaning base salary plus the commission or bonus you earn if you hit target.
The split by wording looks like this. The largest group is not labeled “base” in words; it is a Salary field in the Ashby job system, which lists equity, commission and bonus as separate items next to it.
| What the posting says the range is | Postings | Bonus inside the range? |
|---|---|---|
| Base pay or base salary, in words | 598 (27.1%) | No |
| Salary field, extras listed as separate items (Ashby) | 1,085 (49.2%) | No, with 2 exceptions below |
| “Salary” or “compensation,” no base or total label | 445 (20.2%) | Not stated |
| OTE: base plus commission or bonus target | 77 (3.5%) | Yes |
The “not stated” row is mostly Anthropic: 427 of its non-sales postings print “Annual Salary” under one shared sentence about sales roles. Apptronik’s 16 ranges carry similar plain wording. Reading those as base pay is the natural reading, but it is our inference, not their words.
Which postings put the bonus inside the range?
Sales-team postings only, in our October 16, 2026 read: 75 postings in Anthropic’s Sales department and 2 Mercor account executive roles printed an OTE range. OTE stands for on-target earnings, the base salary plus the commission or sales bonus you earn at 100% of quota.
Anthropic says it in one sentence that appears on 500 of its 502 U.S. postings with pay: “For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings (‘OTE’) range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role.”
Anthropic does not tag which postings count as “sales roles,” so we counted the 75 in its Sales department. That department also lists customer success, partnerships and operations roles; 39 of the 75 carry selling titles such as account executive. Anthropic does not say whether the rest are OTE roles, so 77 is an upper count. Its Account Executive, AI Native posting is a clear case, at $222,800 to $290,000.
Mercor’s Founding Account Executive, Talent Solutions – Enterprise writes “Compensation OTE: $250,000 – $350,000” in its description. Its Mid-Market twin says “OTE: $200,000 – $280,000.”
Why can a Salary label still hide an OTE number?
Because the job system’s label and the posting text can disagree: on October 16, 2026, both Mercor account executive postings showed their OTE figures in Ashby’s Salary field. The structured data says Salary, $250K to $350K; the description, two screens down, says the same numbers are OTE.
Ashby is the hiring system behind 9 of the 17 companies here, including OpenAI, Perplexity, Sierra and Replit. It publishes pay as typed parts: Salary, Equity, Commission and Bonus. We read those parts for all 1,097 Ashby postings with a range.
A second oddity sits at OpenAI. The remote U.S. tier of its Account Director, Digital Native New Business posting lists Salary $189K to $220.5K and Commission $189K to $220.5K, the same numbers twice. The posting does not explain whether that means commission at target equals base. We did not confirm it.
The lesson is small but useful: when a sales posting shows one range, read the text under it before you decide what the number is.
Where do employers mention a bonus on top of the range?
In 407 of the 2,205 postings we read on October 16, 2026, at six companies: Waymo 256, Agility Robotics 76, Mercor 72, and one each at Apptronik, Cognition and Nuro. In every one, the bonus sits outside the printed range. Only Apptronik gave that bonus a size. Mercor does print dollar amounts for relocation and housing bonuses, but those are perks, not pay for performance.
Waymo’s wording, on 256 postings, calls the range “the expected base salary range” and adds that employees “are also eligible to participate in Waymo’s discretionary annual bonus program, equity incentive plan” and benefits, “subject to eligibility requirements.” Its Global Product Marketing Lead prints $249,000 to $307,000.
Agility Robotics puts “Annual Discretionary Bonus: Provided for eligible roles” in a benefits list under an “Anticipated Base Salary Range,” as on its Accountant III posting ($98,000 to $127,000). Mercor lists a “Bi-annual performance bonus structure” among its benefits.
“Discretionary” is the word to notice. It means the company decides each year whether to pay and how much. None of these postings promised an amount.
How much is a 20% bonus target on a $165,000 to $190,000 range?
About $35,500 at the midpoint, if it pays exactly at target: Apptronik’s Senior Application Engineer – Customer Experience posting reads “$165,000 – $190,000 (USD) + 20% bonus target” on October 16, 2026. It was the only posting of 2,205 that sized a bonus.
The table is our arithmetic. We assume the 20% applies to the salary figure, which is the usual meaning of a bonus target, though the posting does not spell it out.
| Point in the range | Salary | 20% target bonus | Cash if paid at target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bottom | $165,000 | $33,000 | $198,000 |
| Midpoint | $177,500 | $35,500 | $213,000 |
| Top | $190,000 | $38,000 | $228,000 |
A target is not a promise. A bonus can pay above or below target, or not at all, and this posting does not say how often it has paid in full. Treat the right-hand column as a ceiling for planning, not a forecast.
How should you read an OTE range for a sales job?
Split it before you compare it: an OTE range such as Anthropic’s $222,800 to $290,000 for an account executive includes commission you earn only at full quota, and none of the 77 OTE postings we read on October 16, 2026 printed the base-to-commission split. The split decides how much is guaranteed.
The table below is an illustration with assumed splits, not Anthropic’s numbers. It shows how far the guaranteed part moves when the split changes.
| Assumed split (base / commission) | Base part of $222,800 to $290,000 | Paid only at quota |
|---|---|---|
| 50 / 50 | $111,400 to $145,000 | $111,400 to $145,000 |
| 60 / 40 | $133,680 to $174,000 | $89,120 to $116,000 |
| 70 / 30 | $155,960 to $203,000 | $66,840 to $87,000 |
That is why an OTE figure should never be compared head to head with a base-salary figure from another company. The OTE number assumes a full year at quota; the base figure does not depend on quota at all.
Is equity part of the posted salary range?
No posting we read on October 16, 2026 folded equity into its range: 1,607 of 2,205 mentioned equity, and only one put a number on it. That one was Mercor’s Head of Operations Planning, which lists “Base cash comp from $200K-$250k” and “Equity starting at $1.5m / 4 years.”
On Ashby boards, “Offers Equity” is a tag with no value attached. In the structured pay data for all 1,097 Ashby postings with a range, not one equity item carried a dollar figure or a percentage. OpenAI’s Technical Program Manager, Compute Infrastructure shows the pattern: “$257K – $335K • Offers Equity.”
For a plain explanation of what employee stock plans are, Charles Schwab and other brokers publish primers, and our look at which AI company pays the most stays with the cash ranges for the same reason: equity values are not posted.
What do state pay-transparency laws require about bonuses?
Four states we read on October 16, 2026 all ask for a base salary or hourly range; only Colorado and Washington also ask for a general description of bonuses and other pay. None of the four requires a dollar figure for a bonus. This is general information, not legal advice.
California. The Labor Commissioner’s Equal Pay Act FAQ, dated August 24, 2026, asks: “Must the pay scale for a position include bonuses, tips, or other benefits?” Its answer starts with “No.” If pay is based on commission or piece rate, a good faith estimate of that range must be included.
Colorado. The state labor department’s INFO #9A, last updated May 29, 2024, requires “a general description of any other compensation — such as bonuses, commissions, or tips.” It adds that a posting “may, but doesn’t need to, estimate the amount.”
New York. Labor Law section 194-b defines the required range as “the minimum and maximum annual salary or hourly range of compensation.” Jobs paid solely on commission can instead say that pay is based on commission. We found no bonus-description duty in the section text.
Washington. RCW 49.58.110 requires “the wage scale or salary range” plus “a general description of all of the benefits and other compensation to be offered.” That fits what we saw: a sentence naming a bonus program, with no amount.
We did not open California’s statute page itself; the legislature’s site blocked our reader, so the California lines above come from the Labor Commissioner’s own FAQ, not the code.
Why did New York’s pay law change what job seekers see?
The Wall Street Journal explained the New York City rule in March 2022, before it took effect; its video had 69,018 views when we checked on October 16, 2026. Khan Academy’s short lesson on total compensation covers the other half of this question, what sits around a salary.
What should you ask before you compare two offers?
Ask four things the postings we read on October 16, 2026 almost never answered: is the range base or OTE, what is the bonus target, how has the bonus paid out, and what is the equity grant worth. These are questions about facts, not negotiation tactics.
- “Is this range base salary or OTE?” For a sales role, also ask the base-to-commission split. The table above shows how much that split moves the guaranteed pay.
- “Is there a bonus, and what is the target?” 407 postings named a bonus and 406 gave no size, so this usually has to be asked.
- “Is the bonus discretionary?” Waymo and Agility use that word. A discretionary bonus can be zero in a bad year.
- “How many shares or units, and at what value?” “Offers Equity” carried no value on any of the 1,097 Ashby postings with pay.
- Get the answers in the written offer. A recruiter’s spoken estimate is not part of the contract.
If you are filling in an application field instead, our guide to what to put for desired salary on a job application covers that step, and why salary ranges are so wide explains the gap between the bottom and the top of a range.
We are not recruiters. We take no money from employers, and postings can close at any time. The official page always wins over anything here. Never pay to apply, never deposit a check and send money back, and treat a text-message offer as not an offer. Our Jobs Desk sources box lists the scam rules in full.
Where can you see these AI pay ranges for yourself?
All 3,801 postings we read on October 16, 2026 sit on our jobs board, where you can browse every open role and apply on the employer’s site, and the daily AI jobs tracker shows the totals by company. Each listing links to the employer’s own page, where the full pay wording lives.
Company-level reads use the same data: is Anthropic hiring, is Scale AI hiring, is Figure AI hiring and the Mercor count.
For pay by role, see forward deployed engineer pay, robotics technician pay and software engineering intern pay. Where a range is missing entirely, read why job postings do not show salary.
Location changes the range too: do remote jobs pay less found state-based bands at Cohere and Scale AI, and why remote jobs have location requirements counts the state lists. If the range fits but the requirements do not, see whether to apply anyway.
We will re-read these pay sections in mid-November and note any company that starts printing bonus targets or equity values. Postings move fast, as our study of how long job postings stay up shows. Have an offer you cannot decode? Ask the Jobs Desk, or browse the Jobs Desk hub.
Does pay range include bonus?
Usually not. Of 2,205 U.S. AI job postings with a range that we read on October 16, 2026, only 77, all on sales teams, had a range the employer says includes a bonus or commission target. The rest showed base or plain salary, with any bonus listed separately.
Does base salary include bonus?
No. Base salary is the fixed pay before any bonus. Waymo, for example, prints an expected base salary range and separately says employees are eligible for a discretionary annual bonus program, in postings read October 16, 2026.
Does total compensation include bonus?
Yes, as employers use the term it is the wider package. xAI postings read October 16, 2026 say base salary is just one part of a total rewards package that also includes equity and benefits.
What does offers equity mean on a job posting?
It means the job comes with a stake in the company, usually stock or options, on top of the salary range. On October 16, 2026, 1,607 of 2,205 AI postings mentioned equity and only one gave a value.
Is OTE the same as salary?
No. OTE, on-target earnings, is base salary plus the commission or bonus you earn at full quota. Anthropic says its sales ranges are OTE, in a sentence on 500 of its 502 U.S. postings with pay we read on October 16, 2026.
Postings, statutes and agency pages behind the counts
- Greenhouse job board API and Ashby posting API (with compensation data) for 19 company boards: OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Scale AI, Mercor, Perplexity, Cohere, Sierra, ElevenLabs, Cursor, Cognition, Replit, Figure AI, Apptronik, Agility Robotics, 1X, Physical Intelligence, Waymo, Nuro; read October 16, 2026. Google DeepMind’s U.S. board returned 404.
- Anthropic, Account Executive, AI Native; Mercor, Founding Account Executive, Enterprise and Head of Operations Planning; read October 16, 2026.
- OpenAI, Account Director, Digital Native New Business and Technical Program Manager, Compute Infrastructure; Apptronik, Senior Application Engineer; read October 16, 2026.
- Waymo, Global Product Marketing Lead; Agility Robotics, Accountant III; read October 16, 2026.
- California Labor Commissioner, California Equal Pay Act FAQ, dated August 24, 2026, read October 16, 2026.
- Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, INFO #9A, Transparency in Pay and Job Opportunities, last updated May 29, 2024, read October 16, 2026.
- New York State Senate, Labor Law section 194-b, version dated September 22, 2023, read October 16, 2026.
- Washington State Legislature, RCW 49.58.110, read October 16, 2026.
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