It's multiple orders of magnitude different. A company making a $100k/year hire might have $1M ARR. To them, the $15k commission is 1.5% of their annual budget

It's multiple orders of magnitude different. A company making a $100k/year hire might have $1M ARR. To them, the $15k commission is 1.5% of their annual budget. If the employee pays, it's 15% of their annual income. If recruiters charged 15% of a company's annual income no one would pay it, or it would bring a company to its knees.