Average salary

[IR35 Avoider]

If I could find a suitable picture of some huge hairy bollocks, I'd post that instead of replying.

Evidently my GCE O Level Mathematics was a damn site more thorough than your degree.

Using the mean average as the only average is inappropriate in many cases - salaries is an excellent example.

Maybe you should have spent more time with english comprehension and less on statistics for dummies. If you'd read my post properly you'd have understood that it is precisely because the distinction between mean and median is important that no-one in the real world (i.e. outside of introductory statistics courses) would use the word "average" to denote the median.

Let me simplify this for you:-
(a) the completely statistically ignorant will use the word average in a way that leaves the precise meaning undefined. (There is no precise meaning, in that case.)
(b) examiners in high school statistics will use it in the way you were taught, to test your knowlege of different measures of the centre.
(c) outside the context of an introductory statistics class, statistically literate people will never use the word "average" to denote a median or mode.

[Bagpuss]

(c) outside the context of an introductory statistics class, statistically literate people will never use the word "average" to denote a mean, a median, or a mode.

FTFY

[MaryPoppins]

Ask yourself; when did you last meet someone earning and living off or providing for a family from an average or below average wage? OK, maybe you spoke to a young colleague who's only just starting out in the workplace, but that's different if that person has the chances to move upwards. I mean people who work 40 hours a week for minimum wage. I haven't met one for years. Everybody in my social or business circle is doing pretty well compared to the lowest earners. There's not just a complete economic disconnect, but a complete social disconnect. The village pub's dying as the landlord is so clueless he doesn't know how to attract customers. Sports clubs are becoming the bastion of the middle and upper classes. Rich and poor don't even meet each other these days, and I think that's a problem. Those in positions of power or influence actually need to be influenced by a wide range of people in their social circles so as to take decisions in a worldly and humane manner. Likewise, those at the low end of the scale could be helped ahead by the informal influence of chatting with succesful people.

I wouldn't imagine the 'rich' have ever socialised regularly with the 'poor' as a rule. If you're talking about the class system.

I'm not 'rich', or powerful - but I do earn considerably more than most of my mates. Most contractors are massively overpaid, and we all know it. I'm glad I'm one, but I don't consider myself 'successful' based on what I earn.

[MarillionFan]

I wouldn't imagine the 'rich' have ever socialised regularly with the 'poor' as a rule. If you're talking about the class system.

I'm not 'rich', or powerful - but I do earn considerably more than most of my mates. Most contractors are massively overpaid, and we all know it. I'm glad I'm one, but I don't consider myself 'successful' based on what I earn.

[suityou01]

Quite literally stunned. Burn the witch.

HTH

[MaryPoppins]

None of us are worth more than a fiver an hour - we're all on borrowed time until we're found out.

Or maybe that's just me.

[suityou01]

None of us are worth more than a fiver an hour - we're all on borrowed time until we're found out.

Or maybe that's just me.

[darmstadt]

I don't have a salary as I don't work for a company, what I do have is an income which is pretty damn mean

German salaries are pretty crap, I was shocked when I first came here at how much people earned and how much the cost of living was and then how did the afford it. What you have to remember is that their parents (we're talking post-war here) were very much into austerity and saved, a lot. This has helped their children and still does which I can vouch for personally. Germans, until very recently, didn't believe in credit (many shops still don't take credit cards) so if you couldn't pay for it you saved or you didn't buy it. Germans still tend very much so, to live in rented accomodation and living outside of town can be very cheap. What that table doesn't tell you is the real figure at the end of the day, in fact its out of date and pretty crap. Deductions are very varied, a single man is tax class 1 and with social deductions will have over 50% of his salary nicked. So say you're left with €2,000 after deductions you've got your rent, utilities, travel, living expenses, etc. which basically leaves you with bugger all. Thats why beer and fags are cheaper here

[sasguru]

I don't have a salary as I don't work for a company, what I do have is an income which is pretty damn mean

German salaries are pretty crap, I was shocked when I first came here at how much people earned and how much the cost of living was and then how did the afford it. What you have to remember is that their parents (we're talking post-war here) were very much into austerity and saved, a lot. This has helped their children and still does which I can vouch for personally. Germans, until very recently, didn't believe in credit (many shops still don't take credit cards) so if you couldn't pay for it you saved or you didn't buy it. Germans still tend very much so, to live in rented accomodation and living outside of town can be very cheap. What that table doesn't tell you is the real figure at the end of the day, in fact its out of date and pretty crap. Deductions are very varied, a single man is tax class 1 and with social deductions will have over 50% of his salary nicked. So say you're left with €2,000 after deductions you've got your rent, utilities, travel, living expenses, etc. which basically leaves you with bugger all. Thats why beer and fags are cheaper here

Germans are living within their means whereas people in the UK are massively overpaid.
How can a much poorer country like the UK justify higher salaries?
It'll all end in tears and the process has already started.

[ThomasSoerensen]

Germans are living within their means whereas people in the UK are massively overpaid.
How can a much poorer country like the UK justify higher salaries?
It'll all end in tears and the process has already started.

Did you ever answer my question here?
http://forums.contractoruk.com/gener...ml#post1270251

How many people?