Wouldnt mean salary be a better representation of the public then median?
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Let’s say you have five people. One person living in poverty makes $10,000 a year. Three middle-class people make $40,000, $60,000, and $80,000 a year. The final person, who is very wealthy, makes $150,000,000 a year. Their mean salary is $30,038,000, but their median salary is $60,000. Which of those is closer to what most people make?
One problem with the mean is that having too many outliers on one end of the spectrum can distort it. The median is less susceptible to that. Salary is one area where you have a lot of outliers on the wealthier end of the spectrum, while it’s not possible to have many outliers on the lower end since it’s not possible to have a salary less than $0. As a result, the mean salary is highly distorted by the ultra-wealthy, while the median salary is more representative of the average person.
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