NC ranked 39th in salary

[JAS]

Median is essentially the middle point of a data set as Weis explained, so it theoretically negates the extreme highs and lows that an "average" calculation may produce.

[Stockholmaren]

Originally Posted by RedNC

Actually the 50/50 doesn’t work when it comes to salaries.
You could have 5 making $1million and 300 making $25k and that would be @ $40k median salary.

The median would be $25,000 in this example, more representative of the normal salary than the average of $40,983. Like mentioned in another post, the median calculation removes extreme values that would otherwise skew the data.

[RedNC]

Originally Posted by Stockholmaren

The median would be $25,000 in this example, more representative of the normal salary than the average of $40,983. Like mentioned in another post, the median calculation removes extreme values that would otherwise skew the data.

So it’s as meaningless as political poles. Just include the information that you want to include and that's the answer.

[Stockholmaren]

Originally Posted by RedNC

So it’s as meaningless as political poles. Just include the information that you want to include and that's the answer.

You mean polls? I'm not sure if I'm following you here, what do you mean by just including the information you want? It's not meaningless at all, it shows what you can expect to get paid, but it's different than purchasing power that takes cost-of-living into consideration.

And why do you say political polls are meaningless? Yes, they may not be exact since they usually ask about 1,000 people that gives you a confidence level of around 95%, but they surely indicate where things are heading. Just look at the numbers for the war in Iraq :-)

[thisguy]

Originally Posted by headed4nc

They've gone up +3.1 that's pretty good.
South Carolina is down -07

It is all relative people

In Detroit newspaper yesterday

1999 median income $52,000
2005 median income $46,000

(I am rounding both numbers)

That's a 11.5% drop, NC had an increase. SC had a drop, etc.

The US averages for the same time were
1999 49,000
2005 46,000

That is a 6% drop. (inflation adjusted) This is the reality of our country people with globalization and the widening gap between rich and poor.

The national average reflects a growing disparity in this country between haves and have nots. This is not a political statement as this is so much larger that you cannot attribute it to 1 policy or another, but this has been going on for 30 years... the upper middle class is growing, the ultra rich is growing and the poor and lower middle class is growing. Those "middle" middle class people are essentially dissapearing - my favorite statistic is now in the US the top 1% own 40% of the wealth.... in the 70s it was closer to 1% owning 20% of the wealth - so our disparity grows by the decade.

in MI in 1960s you could graduate HS, get an auto line job, work overtime and make wonderful money and own a 2nd home "up north" (which is where we go vacation) - now that whole way of life is dissapearing as jobs are cut, pay is flat while health care, education, energy, home prices rise, jobs are being cut.

We are a very exaggerated example of trend across America. As we move to a "services" economy away from manufacturing, those in relatively high skill or high "white collar" type of jobs can do good, whereas those who rely more on labor are finding many less jobs to do nationwide so that same supply of people is looking at far fewer jobs, driving down wages. Since this is happening slowly over time, drip drip drip, people seem not to notice or care, but if it all happened in 5 years people would be outraged. Most service jobs don't pay very well and benefits are horrendous. I joke with friends that all we do in most of this country now is provide services for each other and the same money gets passed around from 1 person to the other - you cut my hair, I will cut your lawn, and she will do wife's nails, and so on and so forth. Not much value added in these things on a global sense.

In a "big picture" our outsourcing is providing a more equitable "world" standard, the lowest 3rd world countries (not all of them but some of them i.e. CHina or India) are building a middle class and their per capita income is rising nationwide, while in some developed countries like Germany, France, US, Japan our median incomes are dropping - so the whole world is going to the middle since we are in an era when many jobs can be done 4000 mile way, so corporations money will go to where the service can be provided cheapest in many (not all) cases. If you are in a job where you need to be "local", i.e a nurse or a teacher you will be ok, if your job can be done quite easily 3000 miles away for 80% cheaper your standard of living is at risk over the long run. I read that some of these large home builders even outsource their architect work to eastern europe places like Romania... they can get 70% off the prices of US workers.

[thisguy]

Originally Posted by RedNC

Actually the 50/50 doesn’t work when it comes to salaries.
You could have 5 making $1million and 300 making $25k and that would be @ $40k median salary.

median is more accurate than average

the data I used above from the newspaper was MEDIAN, not average

median takes the 50th "person" out of 100 people, his/her situation

Average can be greatly skewed as in a sample of 10 people's salary if person #1 makes $50 million and person 2 through 10 are unemployed and make 0, the average salary of those 10 people will be $5 million. When in fact 9 of those people make nothing. So its a bad statistic. But the median salary (the 5th person) would be $0 hence more accurate.

[Bethanytedder]

We are below the median income some and the two of us do just fine. You don't necessarily have to have diploma from some Ivy League school to live here but a trade school education is a handy thing to have. Well, that and natural ability.

[thisguy]

Originally Posted by Bethanytedder

We are below the median income some and the two of us do just fine. You don't necessarily have to have diploma from some Ivy League school to live here but a trade school education is a handy thing to have. Well, that and natural ability.

Or 2 incomes

But really you can find very nice housing there for $175K...nice 1600-1800 sq foot homes which a generation ago would of been "awesome" - people now are spoiled and require 2500 at the bottom to "live". This coming from a guy in a 900 sq foot home built in the 40s.... I complain about being cramped but before me was a family of 4 with 2 teenage daughters - somehow they shared my oh, 6 x 3 foot bathroom and lived to tell about it.

An income of $45,000 can get you into lots of areas, not the highest end stuff but very comfortable housing. In many areas of the country now that is impossible on that salary - you'd be lucky to get a tiny condo but no way into homes over 1000 sq ft.

[RedNC]

Originally Posted by thisguy

median is more accurate than average

the data I used above from the newspaper was MEDIAN, not average

median takes the 50th "person" out of 100 people, his/her situation

Average can be greatly skewed as in a sample of 10 people's salary if person #1 makes $50 million and person 2 through 10 are unemployed and make 0, the average salary of those 10 people will be $5 million. When in fact 9 of those people make nothing. So its a bad statistic. But the median salary (the 5th person) would be $0 hence more accurate.

I still find no value in this information.
Where I live the “median” is $96k. So if a person was using the median to determine where they could live then if they make @ $96k they should be fine. Problem is they couldn’t even afford the cheapest condo much less a home. Maybe they could find a rental, but that’s about it.

Originally Posted by Stockholmaren

And why do you say political polls are meaningless? Yes, they may not be exact since they usually ask about 1,000 people that gives you a confidence level of around 95%, but they surely indicate where things are heading. Just look at the numbers for the war in Iraq :-)

If polls were accurate then Kerry would be our president.
They are totally useless. If you asked 1000 people in NYC who they were voting for the results would be “whatever dem is running”.
Most polls are designed to return a predetermined result, like it or not.