eli5 Why do we use median salary instead of mean salary?

Question

Wouldnt mean salary be a better representation of the public then median?

In: Other

Answer 1

Quite the opposite, actually.

If I present to you a group of 10 people who have $10, $10, $10, $10, $10, $10, $10, $10, $10 and $1,000,000, and ask you “how much money does the average or typical person in this group have?”, you would almost certainly say $10, right? The mean average of that group is $100,009. If I answered $100,009, you’d look at me funny. The median, on the other hand, is $10.