Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Average wage vs. Median wage

"Wal-Mart full-time pay averages $10.17 per hour".

The MEAN is the arithmetic average, the average you are probably used
to finding for a set of numbers - add up the numbers and divide by how
many there are: (80 + 90 + 90 + 100 + 85 + 90) / 6 = 89 1/6.

The MEDIAN is the number in the middle. In order to find the median,
you have to put the values in order from lowest to highest, then find
the number that is exactly in the middle:

80 85 90 90 90 100
^
since there is an even number of values, the MEDIAN is
between these two, or it is 90. Notice that there is
exactly the same number of values ABOVE the median as
BELOW it!

Wal-Mart will not divulge the median wage of their 'associates'.

Could it be: 6 6 6 8 8 12 14 14 20 ?

Average= $10.44
Median= $8.00
Mode=$6.00

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