average wage

[billyo]

the press say that the average weekly wages is £457 if thats is so why is it 9 out of 10 people i know are on £6.50.to £8, per hour , also why do we have to force people to go to work if the figures were true the Q to take theses jobs would be from hear to the moon
why do the press go along with this bulshi# are they in on it

 

[2scoops0406]

Maybe the 1 in 10 is on £1000 ?

 

[billyo]

then 10 to 1 is not average

 

[oompah]

But what average are they talking about,if you start adding in professional peoples wages the average is sure to increase.Most of the people in the factory where I work are on about 20k a year so we are below the average.

 

[Softus]

the press say that the average weekly wages is £457 if thats is so why is it 9 out of 10 people i know are on £6.50.to £8, per hour

Because that's how much is earned by those people who don't know what an "average" is, and how to calculate it.

 

[oompah]

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285

 

[2scoops0406]

Well, ok, the 1 needs to be on £1960 per week to make it work out (average between £6.50 and £8 per hour assuming a 40 hour week)

 

[billyo]

oompah .thank u for that . but i still think its bulshi# as we all know that the figures can be played with , in cumbria i say the the true figure is £8.50 per hour (on the top side 39) hour week =£331.50 a long way off £457

 

[2scoops0406]

oompah .thank u for that . but i still think its bulshi# as we all know that the figures can be played with , in cumbria i say the the true figure is £8.50 per hour (on the top side 39) hour week =£331.50 a long way off £457

But the average of what? Cumbria is a poor (relatively speaking) county as is Cornwall.

Any how, looking a bit deeper in to it (source ONS), £457 is the median UK wage, which is completey different from the average (mean) wage.

 

[JohnD]

if by average you mean arithmetic mean, this figure is always skewed by occasional high numbers.

e.g. 99 people out of a hundred earn £500
1 person in 100 earns £1,000,00

Average wage for the population is (99x500)+1,000,000) = 1049,500 divided by 100 = 10,495

Which gives a false impression.

This often misleads people, e.g. if you say "average earnings at Bloggins Engineering is £50,000 p.a." may mean that Mr Bloggins, and Bloggins Junior, take home a fat wedge, and the workers are on minimum wage.

 

[2scoops0406]

if by average you mean arithmetic mean, this figure is always skewed by occasional high numbers.

e.g. 99 people out of a hundred earn £500
1 person in 100 earns £1,000,00

Average wage for the population is (99x500)+1,000,000) = 1049,500 divided by 100 = 10,495

Which gives a false impression.

This often misleads people, e.g. if you say "average earnings at Bloggins Engineering is £50,000 p.a." may mean that Mr Bloggins, and Bloggins Junior, take home a fat wedge, and the workers are on minimum wage.

That's gotta hurt

 

[Softus]

Any how, looking a bit deeper in to it (source ONS), £457 is the median UK wage, which is completey different from the average (mean) wage.

Well observed.

It merely means that one (or, at most, two) people earn precisely £457 per week, whereas half of the population earn less than that and half earn more.

The ones who earn less could all be on £50 per week, and the ones who earn more could all be on £1,000,000 per week - the median would still be the same.

The use of the word "average" by the media is misleading, because most people assume it to mean (no pun intended) the arithmetic mean, whereas it's usually the median.

For example, the average house price is currently reckoned to be about £200,000. As long as half of houses are priced below this, the definition of "median" means that there is no limit to the value of all the homes that are priced above it.

 

[tim west]

Isn't the whole financial market based on approximations? "APR" this and
% that, no wonder people are confused and havnt any idea they are being ripped off.

 

[empip]

I think the 'average' referred to is actually the 'median' wage - A different animal.

...The results of the 2007 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) show that median weekly pay for full-time employees in the UK grew by 2.9 per cent in the year to April 2007 to reach £457. Median earnings of full-time male employees was £498 per week in April 2007; for women the median was £394...

...Notes:
Occupation data is taken from the sub-major group level of the Standard Occupational Classification 2000.
The median is the value below which 50 per cent of employees fall.
Pay refers to gross pay (before tax) of full-time employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey week was unaffected by absence. Annual and weekly earnings include paid overtime.
The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings is based on a sample of employee jobs taken from HM Revenue & Customs PAYE records. The 2007 ASHE is based on approximately 142,000 returns and in 2007 information was collected for the pay period that included 18 April...

 

[tim west]

Surprised you didnt knock up an excel sheet to present your case pip