SDR salary: what reps earn and what a hire really costs

How much does an SDR earn in the United States?

A US SDR is usually paid a base salary plus a variable tied to a quota. Median on-target earnings run from $80,000 in The Bridge Group's 2025 survey of companies to $90,000 on RepVue, and the central figure for base pay from about $44,000, the average on Payscale, to $60,000, the median on RepVue, while the ranges around those figures spread wider, because each source asks different people and measures a different thing. Here is what each one reports:

• Glassdoor shows median total pay of about $90,000 a year for the SDR title, with base pay between $45,000 and $66,000 and additional pay between $26,000 and $49,000 in the range it displays, an estimate based on 33,168 salaries that people in the job submitted anonymously.
• Payscale shows an average base salary of $43,709 from 324 salary profiles for the Sales Development Representative title, while its page for the same title with SDR in brackets shows an average base of $52,866 from 699 profiles. Both were updated in September 2026, and both come from the pay that employees enter in Payscale's online salary database.
• RepVue shows a median base salary of $60,000 and median OTE of $90,000, from 8,186 submissions that RepVue marks as verified.
• The Bridge Group reports median OTE of $80,000, split 68:32 into $55,000 base and $25,000 variable, in a February 2025 report based on survey responses from 351 B2B companies. Of those companies, 78% are based in North America and 83% sell software as a service, so the figures describe tech sales teams best.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics has no SDR occupation. The closest is sales representatives of services, which O*NET's search returns first for the phrase. Its median wage was $69,990 in 2025, and the BLS counts commissions as part of wages. That occupation covers every level up to national sales executives, so it is not an SDR figure.

What is OTE, and how much of it is variable?

OTE, or on-target earnings, is what an SDR earns in a year at 100% of quota: base salary plus the full variable. In The Bridge Group's 2025 report the median SDR plan was $80,000 OTE with a 68:32 split, which means $55,000 in base pay and $25,000 that depends on results.

Why do SDR salary figures disagree so much?

SDR salary figures disagree because the sources count different things. Some report base pay and others total pay or target pay, some ask reps and others ask companies, and each sample leans towards certain industries, cities and levels of experience. A base salary average and a total pay median can both be right and still sit far apart. Check five things before you compare two numbers:

• What is measured. Payscale leads with base salary and Glassdoor with total pay, while RepVue and The Bridge Group lead with OTE, which is a target rather than money paid.
• Who answers. People in the job choose whether to share their pay with Glassdoor, Payscale or RepVue, while The Bridge Group asks companies about their plans and the BLS asks employers in a federal survey.
• Who is in the sample. The companies in The Bridge Group's report had a median revenue of $47 million and most sell software. An SDR at a small services firm is in a different market.
• Which title. The same job is posted as SDR, BDR or sales development representative. Payscale's two pages for the title sit about $9,000 apart in average base salary: $52,866 on the one with SDR in brackets against $43,709 on the one without, a gap of $9,157.
• When. RepVue's table was updated on November 3, 2026, Payscale updated both pages in September 2026, The Bridge Group published in February 2025 and the BLS wage data is for May 2025.

What does an SDR cost the company beyond salary?

An SDR costs more than the pay plan. On top of base and variable come benefits and payroll taxes, recruiting, the months before the rep is productive, tools and data, a manager's time, and starting again when the rep leaves. Some of these have public benchmarks; the rest you can only price from your own numbers.

• Benefits and payroll taxes. In the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation table for June 2026, private employers spent $26.99 per hour worked on wages and salaries for sales and related occupations and $8.86 on benefits, about 33 cents for every dollar of pay. Of that, $2.69 went to legally required benefits, which the BLS lists as Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance and workers' compensation. Sales and related is a broad group, so use your payroll provider's figure when you have it.
• Ramp. The Bridge Group's 2025 report puts average SDR ramp at 3.0 months, the shortest since 2010. During those months you pay the full base for partial output.
• Turnover. Average SDR tenure was 1.9 years and median annual attrition was 40% in 2024, of which 16 points were promotions, according to the same report. Against 1.9 years in the seat, about 23 months, the report's 3.0-month average ramp works out to about one month in eight (3 ÷ 23 = 0.13), and every departure, promotions included, restarts recruiting and ramp for that seat.
• Recruiting. Job ads, a recruiter's fee if you use one, and the hours of whoever interviews. We found no recent public benchmark for the cost of hiring an SDR with a method we could check, so use your own figures.
• Tools and data. A CRM seat, a source of contact data, a sending or calling tool and the mailboxes behind it. Price each one on the vendor's own pricing page on the day you budget, and note which vendors only give a price after a sales call.
• Management. Someone senior reviews messages, listens to calls and checks the meetings. Count those hours at that person's cost; no invoice arrives for them, so they are easy to leave out.

How do you work out the full cost of an SDR hire?

Work out the full cost of an SDR hire by adding a year of expected pay, benefits and payroll taxes, recruiting, tools and management time, then dividing by the qualified meetings you expect from the rep that year. Use your own offer and payroll figures; public benchmarks only tell you whether your inputs are in a sensible range. Fill in each line with your numbers:

Is hiring an SDR the cheapest way to get meetings?

Hiring an SDR can be the cheapest way to get meetings or the most expensive one. It depends on your cost per qualified meeting, how long the rep stays and what you want to keep inside the company. Compare every option on cost per qualified meeting held, using the same definition of qualified for each. If you have not yet settled whether outbound is the right motion at all, read inbound vs outbound first. The common options:

• An in-house SDR. You keep the knowledge, the phone work, the CRM records and a path for growing account executives from within. You also carry recruiting, ramp, management and turnover.
• An outside provider. An outsourced SDR service does the first-contact work from outside the company, and what is included varies, so ask which channels are in scope, who writes the messages and who owns the data. If you want more of the sales process handled for you, look at outsourced sales.
• A booked meetings service by email. Ace Digital is one option: our booked meetings service builds a verified list of buyers, writes each email for one company, warms up separate mailboxes before sending, and has a person read every reply and put interested buyers on your calendar. It works by email only, so if you want someone on the phone every day, an in-house SDR fits better.