It is generally believed that salespeople who are paid on a commission basis outperform salespeople who are paid a fixed salary. Some management consultants argue, however, that in certain industries...

It is generally believed that salespeople who are paid on a commission basis outperform salespeople who are paid a fixed salary. Some management consultants argue, however, that in certain industries the fixed-salary salesperson may sell more because the consumer will feel less sales pressure and respond to the salesperson less as an antagonist. In an experiment to study this, a random sample of 180 salespeople from a retail clothing chain was selected. Of these, 90 salespeople were paid a fixed salary, and the remaining 90 were paid a commission on each sale. The total dollar amount of 1 month’s sales for each was recorded. Can we conclude that the commission salesperson outperforms the fixed salary salesperson?