What’s the difference between the mean and the median figures?
Company A has 11 employees
The lowest-paid employee earns
eight times less than the CEO
This is the mean, or average wage
Calculated by adding up the wages of all employees and dividing by the number of employees
This is the median wage
It falls in the middle of a range when everyone’s wages are lined up from smallest to largest
The median is a typically a more representative figure as the mean can be skewed by a handful of highly paid people
Company A employs five women
and six men. The median wage for both
genders is the same in this case ...
... but due to high executive
pay the mean is much higher for
the male employees
Mean for men
Mean for women
Guardian graphic
What’s the difference between the mean and the median figures?
The median is a typically a more representative figure as the mean can be skewed by a handful of highly paid people
Company A employs five women
and six men. The median wage for both
genders is the same in this case ...
... but due to high executive
pay the mean is much higher for
the male employees
Company A has 11 employees
The lowest-paid employee earns
eight times less than the CEO
This is the mean, or average wage
Calculated by adding up the wages of all employees and dividing by the number of employees
This is the median wage
It falls in the middle of a range when everyone’s wages are lined up from smallest to largest
Mean for men
Mean for women
Guardian graphic
What’s the difference between the mean and the median figures?
The median is a typically a more representative figure as the mean can be skewed by a handful of highly paid people
Company A employs five women
and six men. The median wage
for both genders is the same in
this case ...
... but due to high executive
pay the mean is much higher for
the male employees
Company A has 11 employees
The lowest-paid employee earns
eight times less than the CEO
This is the mean, or average wage
Calculated by adding up the wages of all employees and dividing by the number of employees
This is the median wage
It falls in the middle of a range when everyone’s wages are lined up from smallest to largest
Mean
for men
Mean for
women
Guardian graphic