Average salary

[doodab]

PS mean of those numbers isn't a little over 100k nor have you got the median correct.

Arithmetic Mean

(10 + 10 + 300000 / 3) = 100006.67

There are other kinds of mean BTW.

Median

10 10 300000

Which one is in the middle?

[sasguru]

Arithmetic Mean

(10 + 10 + 300000 / 3) = 100006.67

There are other kinds of mean BTW.

Median

10 10 300000

Which one is in the middle?

In this case the most appropriate average is the mode. Albeit you can't draw too many conclusions from 3 data points - the 300000 looks like an outlier.

[stek]

Isn't the mode the 'most common value'?? ie 10 in this example?

[Mich the Tester]

Today I leaned that the average after tax income per person in Germany is around 1550 EUR per month. Source

I find this shocking!!!!!!!

Does anybody else feel that we are a bit out of sync with the "average" person?

I know this number include all people with an income so also people on benefits and retired people.

But still 1500 EUR!!!!!!!!

That is not a lot.


According to wikipedia Income in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia the median in UK before tax is 18500 GBP per year


Am I the only one who feel disconnected from these numbers ?

It´s a similar picture in the Netherlands, but in the past people at the bottom of the salary scales used to have all sorts of extra employment benefits such as a solid pension scheme, health insurance at a nominal fee, education and training grants and good employment protection. In recent years, those benefits have been cut away as people at the bottom of the employment market have found their jobs outsourced to temp agencies or service companies who employ people on a casual basis. The government, obviously a big employer, now does not directly employ anybody in the lowest 5 salary scales (of about 20 scales); all those people's jobs are now outsourced. Cleaners, bus drivers, labourers, mail room workers, postmen etc are still earning the same wage but now have to fund all the extras on their own. Their taxes have remained just as high. At the same time, the flexible employment market has worked out very well indeed for the most educated people, who can easily bring in >100k euros by working freelance.

Now I don't want to appear socialist here, but I can't help thinking that this is causing a lot of dissatisfaction with politics among the people at the lower end of the income scale, and that it might explode into real trouble; industrial disputes, civil unrest, crime etc etc.

[Mich the Tester]

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.

[sasguru]

Likewise, those at the low end of the scale could be helped ahead by the informal influence of chatting with succesful people.

Innit bruv, though! Gissa job then, me 'as got educashun innit wiv my GCSE in woodworkin.

[Churchill]

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.

It may even help with your spelling.

Btw, I agree.

[Mich the Tester]

Innit bruv, though! Gissa job then, me 'as got educashun innit wiv my GCSE in woodworkin.

A businessman who has built up a very succesful estate management business after leaving school with one A level and selling life insurance door to door once said to me 'I don't talk and dress this way because I'm rich. I'm rich because I talk and dress this way'.

[Bagpuss]

Arithmetic Mean

(10 + 10 + 300000 / 3) = 100006.67

There are other kinds of mean BTW.

Median

10 10 300000

Which one is in the middle?

No that bit is correct, I misread, the main bit of my post is correct though, and when talking about averages mainly there are three in common use. In any skewed distribution (such as earnings) the mean is not very useful, and median and mode are much more representative. The example above is a bit daft, on the population of incomes, the median and mode will be more representative than the mean.

[ThomasSoerensen]

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 agree. The only one I can think of is our cleaning lady.
But I guess all the people who do not proceed with edication beyond mandatory school are the ones in those manual labour jobs that cannot be outsourced to India/wherever, so the hairdresser, bus driver, etc.
Maybe I could learn something next time I get my harircut in stead of just sitting there in impatient silence.