Question 1167504: Suppose you are representing the employees at a large corporation during contract negotiations. You have a list of the salaries of all the employees at the corporation (The salaries include the many lower level employees and the few high paid management employees) and you plan to find a measure of center (e.g. mean, median, or mode).
a. Which measure or center would you use to represent the employees in an effort to support your claim that the average salary of lower level employees is much lower than the national average (for lower level employees) and thus should be increased?
1.median
2.mean
3.mode
b. Why is this the better choice?
Answer by CPhill(1987)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! ## a. Which measure or center would you use?
The measure of center you should use to support the claim that the salary is low is the **median**.
1. **median**
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## b. Why is this the better choice?
The **median** is the better choice because it is **resistant to skewness and outliers**, which is a critical factor when dealing with salaries in a large corporation.
* **The Problem with the Mean:** The **mean** (average) is heavily influenced by **outliers**. In a typical corporation, the distribution of salaries is **right-skewed**, meaning a small number of very high-paid executives pull the mean upwards. If you were to use the mean, the high salaries of the management would inflate the "average" to a higher figure, making it appear that employees are paid well, which would hurt your negotiating position.
* **The Benefit of the Median:** The **median** is the exact middle value of the data set. Half of the employees earn less than the median, and half earn more. By using the median, you present a salary figure that accurately reflects what the *typical* employee (the lower- and middle-level majority) earns, disregarding the disproportionate financial weight of the few high-paid executives. This lower, more representative figure strengthens your claim that the majority of employees are underpaid relative to the national average.
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