MLM Income Statistics: Real Distributor Earnings

By Oleksandr Honcharov, CEO at Flawless MLM

Last updated: October 2026

Key Takeaways

• The FTC staff report found that the vast majority of participants received $1,000 or less a year, under $84 a month on average, before expenses.
• AARP's 2018 survey of 601 current and former MLM sellers found that 47% lost money and only 25% made a profit.
• Amway's 2025 income disclosure shows a $750 average for IBOs at Founders Platinum and below, and 38% had no sales and no payment.
• Averages hide the middle: at MONAT, 91.69% of US Market Partners sit at the lowest rank with a median of $8 a year.

Across company disclosures and FTC data, MLM income statistics point the same way: most participants earn little or nothing before expenses. The FTC could calculate the $1,000 share for 33 statements, and the vast majority of participants there received $1,000 or less a year. AARP found that 47% lost money.

How We Compiled This Data

Every company figure comes from that company's own income disclosure statement, using the latest edition we could open in October 2026. FTC and AARP figures come from those organizations' reports. Companies publish an IDS voluntarily, so the sample covers a small share of the industry. Averages are not profit, because participant expenses are not subtracted. Confirm the edition on each company's site before you quote a number.

How Much Do MLM Distributors Actually Make? Median and Average

So how much do MLM distributors make? In the FTC's review, the vast majority of participants received $1,000 or less per year before expenses, which is under $84 a month. Only 33 of the 70 statements it studied allowed that calculation.

A mean adds every payout and divides by the headcount. A median is the payout of the person standing in the exact middle. When a few top ranks earn six figures, the mean climbs and the median stays put, which is why average MLM income quoted alone misleads.

Amway's 2025 statement shows how far the two drift apart. Its $750 average covers every IBO at Founders Platinum and below, including the 38% with no reported sales. Among IBOs who received a payment, the top 50% averaged $3,598 while their median was $551. Average pay in that group runs 6.5 times the median (calculation: $3,598 ÷ $551).

MONAT's 2025 statement splits the same way. Across all US Market Partners the average is $665, yet the lowest rank holds 91.69% of partners. Its median is $8. LifeVantage reports a $639 average and a $192 median, and both describe only consultants who earned something.

According to LifeVantage's US income disclosure, 67.68% of consultants earned no commissions in 2025. 

Who gets counted matters as much as the statistic. Herbalife's 2025 US statement counts about 107,769 distributors who ordered products for resale. About 47,000 of them earned money in a typical month. That leaves a majority with nothing in a typical month, and the company does not publish a single annual average to hide it.

Convert the FTC's ceiling into a wage to see what it means. A participant who earns $1,000 in a year and works five hours a week makes $3.85 an hour before expenses (calculation: $1,000 ÷ 260 hours). Five hours is our assumption, because no IDS reports hours worked. A 2018 Magnify Money survey of 1,049 participants, cited in the FTC's January 2025 proposed rule, put the median at $0.67 an hour before expenses.

Founders ask us a blunt question in MLM consulting calls: what does a typical distributor earn in year one? An honest answer comes from the median of your own ledger, not from the best rank in a recruiting deck. One regulator went further than any company and read 70 of these statements side by side. With automated MLM payout software, companies can track commission disbursements, maintain payment records, and make earnings easier to verify.

What the FTC 2024 Staff Report Found in 70 Income Disclosure Statements

Published on September 4, 2024, the FTC staff report on MLM income disclosure statements analyzed the disclosures of 70 MLMs. Staff found that most participants earned $1,000 or less a year before expenses. None of the 70 statements accounted for all the expenses a participant pays.

Staff located statements on the websites of 79 MLMs in summer 2022, out of more than 600 MLMs known to the agency. A follow-up in February 2023 produced the final 70. Staff views fill the report, not Commission findings, and each MLM appears only by number.

That $1,000 figure rests on 33 disclosures where the portion of participants at that level could be calculated. "Income" means payments the MLM made to participants, before expenses and without retail profit.

According to the FTC staff report, more than 50% of participants earned nothing in 17 of the 27 disclosures that give a no-income figure. 

Participant bases differ from one statement to the next. Only 11 of the 70 statements counted all participants. Another 29 counted only participants who earned commissions, and 24 counted only those the company called active, while six were unclear. That is why 21 statements gave a median for some group while the headline averages stayed incomparable.

In its blog post on the report, the FTC adds a point about expenses: they can, and in some MLMs often do, outstrip income. In January 2025 the agency proposed an Earnings Claim Rule, and our guide to MLM regulations in the USA tracks its status. At our October 2026 check the rule was proposed, not final and not withdrawn.

Because the report is anonymous, you cannot tell which company sits behind statement 41. Company numbers have to come from the companies' own documents.

Enforcement gives the numbers a human scale. In July 2016, Herbalife agreed to pay $200 million in consumer redress under an FTC settlement (FTC press release, July 2016). By January 2017 the agency was mailing checks to nearly 350,000 consumers. Most checks fell between $100 and $500, and the largest topped $9,000 (FTC press release, January 2017). Those checks refunded money consumers had spent, which is a different thing from income. A decade later, Herbalife's own statement for 2025 reports that the majority of US distributors joined only to receive a discount.

Income Disclosure Statements by Company

Every company defines its own participant base, so MLM income disclosure statements are not comparable by default. A figure labeled "average" can mean all participants, active ones only or earners only. Each row shows what a statement counts and what it leaves out, across the largest MLM companies that publish one.

Amway's 2025 edition replaces the 2024 statement that most older articles still quote. Per the Amway income disclosure, 59% of IBOs received at least one payment during the year. A single payment of any size meets that test, so the $750 average is the better guide to the dollars.

Mary Kay's statement is the sharpest example of a narrow base. In the Mary Kay income disclosure for Canada, 11.3% of the sales force was eligible for commissions, and those consultants averaged $214. Another 86.8% were not eligible and earned no commissions. No median figure appears in the document.

Nu Skin counts only active affiliates, who were 46.54% of all Brand Affiliates in 2025. Among them, the average monthly payment was $178.75 across everyone and $670.04 among those paid. Other network marketing companies draw the line elsewhere, which is why a side by side ranking of their averages tells you little. For a more accurate picture of what these numbers mean for an MLM business, contact the FlawlessMLM team for expert guidance on compensation plans and their implementation.

Three caveats apply to every row:

• "Active" means something different in each document, from $450 of monthly orders to any commission at all.
• Averages are not profit.
• Expenses are not subtracted in any of these statements except USANA's partial net figure, so a positive average can still be a loss.

MLM Success Rate: What AARP, Academics and the FTC Say

The MLM success rate depends on the method behind the number. In 2018 the AARP Foundation's survey found that 25% of participants reported a profit. Jon Taylor's model put the loss rate at 99.6% for about 30 MLMs. Those two measure different things, so neither cancels the other.

AARP Foundation research on multilevel marketing is the best anchor for individual outcomes, because it asked participants rather than reading company documents. Fielded in September and October 2017, it found that 47% of participants lost money and 27% broke even. Only a quarter reported a profit. Among the profitable, 53% made less than $5,000, and three of the 601 participants reported profits of $100,000 or more.

According to the AARP Foundation, nearly half (47%) of MLM participants reported that they lost money. 

Taylor's figure needs a different label. He reviewed more than 350 compensation plans and filed his chapter as a public comment in an FTC business opportunity proceeding in 2011. His 99.6% loss rate comes from about 30 MLMs with earnings data, using his assumptions about retention and costs, so it is a model. We treat it as the critic's upper bound.

Both sources agree on the shape even where the loss share differs. A small group profits, and a large group breaks even or loses. MLM success rate statistics therefore need a sample size and a method beside every figure. Self-reported surveys carry recall bias, and company statements carry selection bias. Between those poles sit the FTC's 70 statements.

One condition changes the picture: a product that customers reorder without a recruiting pitch. In the pay plans our consultants review, retail demand moves the zero-earner share more than any rank-ladder tweak does. For companies looking to balance these factors, MLM compensation plan consulting can help align payout structures with actual customer demand.

Income Concentration: Top 1% and the Rest

Income in MLM concentrates in a very small group at the top of the rank ladder. In Mary Kay's 2025 Canadian statement, National Sales Directors were 0.04% of the independent sales force and averaged $127,888. Meanwhile 86.8% of consultants were not eligible for commissions.

MONAT's statement gives the most useful ladder, because it reports a median at every rank. A Managing Market Mentor's median payout is about 13,400 times the lowest rank's median (calculation: $107,264 ÷ $8). Those mentors are 0.05% of partners. Amway's ladder shows the same slope, with Founders Platinum IBOs at 0.54% of the base and an average of $48,879.

So how do MLMs make money at the top ranks? Override commissions pay a rank on team volume, so a leader with the largest downline collects on every level below. Positions taken early compound as the team grows. Late entrants rarely rebuild that structure unless the plan resets or compresses its ranks.

The top MLM earners in these documents are ranks, not named people. Together the highest MLM earners hold a hundredth of a percent of the field. Concentration alone is not proof of a pyramid scheme. Our guide to MLM vs pyramid scheme structures explains where that line sits.

How to Read an Income Disclosure Statement

An income disclosure statement is only as useful as its definitions. Start with the participant base, because it decides what every other number in the document means.

• Find the participant base. A figure can describe all participants, only active ones or only earners. The FTC found that only 11 of 70 statements counted everyone.
• Read the definition of active. Mary Kay requires $450 of retail orders in a month, while MONAT counts anyone who earned a commission during the year.
• Look for a median. Amway gives medians only for IBOs who received a payment, and Mary Kay's Canadian statement gives none. When the median is missing, treat the average as a ceiling for the typical participant.
• Check what the document says about expenses. Amway lists a $55 renewal fee, and Plexus states that business expenses may exceed earnings.
• Confirm the edition year. LifeVantage dates its current statement February 2026 for 2025 data.

Picture a journalist on deadline who copies the $639 average from LifeVantage's statement. The same document says 32.32% of consultants earned commissions, so the $639 describes about one in three people. A story that quotes only the headline leaves out the other two thirds.

Eligible and active are not synonyms. Eligible usually means the participant met a qualification, while active means the participant did something in a period. A company can show a healthy average by counting only the first group. In our experience reviewing pay plans, the base definition moves the headline number more than any other choice.

What Income Statistics Mean for MLM Founders

Every plan in the tables above has a long tail of near-zero earners. For a founder, the question is whether the middle ranks pay enough to stay. MLM income statistics are the evidence regulators and journalists check first.

Entry cost sets the loss that quitters take with them. LifeVantage lists a $50 Start Kit and event fees up to $200. Amway charges $0 to register in the first year and $55 to renew. Lower fixed costs shrink the refund exposure when a participant leaves.

Define the denominator before the first statement is published. Herbalife's own 2025 document says most US distributors joined only for a product discount. Customers counted as distributors drag every average down and invite the comparison regulators make.

Autoship deserves the same scrutiny in a statement. An account that ships monthly counts as active whether or not anyone uses the product. Report autoship-only accounts as their own line.

The rank ladder decides who stays. At LifeVantage, 45.68% of consultants sit at Consultant 1 with a $25 average monthly payout, and Consultant 3 averages $163. Reachable mid-ranks change that curve far more than a richer top rank.

Income claims in recruiting should echo the IDS median, not the best rank. A compliant MLM commission software module should generate the statement from the payout ledger, so zero earners and the period are counted by default. Ask any vendor to demonstrate that report before you sign.

An IDS describes one company in one year, and it cannot predict what an individual will earn. FlawlessMLM has delivered 400+ MLM projects since 2004, and the payout ledger inside each one is the source a statement has to be built from.

If you are scoping a new MLM company or restructuring an existing one, plan the income disclosure before launch, not after the first journalist asks. Our MLM consulting team offers a free 30-minute consultation, no obligation, covering pay plan logic and statement structure.