Average Salary

[leigh47]

What is the current average annual salary of an adult in fulltime employment ?

[Gizmonster]

Lots of factors to consider, such as gender, area, experience, type of work .... all of which are taken into account:

http://career-advice.monster.co.uk/salary-benefits/pay-salary-advice/uk-average-salary-graphs/article.aspx

[DaisyNonna]

So why are average salaries referred to by press and politicians?

[factor-fiction]

Also depends on whether you use mean or median as the measure and whether you include staff in part time contracts and seasonal contracts

[factor-fiction]

There are published figures calculated on a specified basis. It depends whether that is the basis leigh47 wants

[factor-fiction]

Some tables here that you may want to look at
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/labour-market/people-in-work/earnings/index.html

[THECORBYLOON]

Depends what you mean by "average" in the first place. There could be more folk earning a certain figure, is that the average? Do you add up everyone's wages and divide by the number of folk to get the answer? Another method is to put all the amounts in order and see what amount is in the middle.

You may think this is picky, but if eighty folk are getting £15,000 a year and twenty are getting £100,000 a year what is the 'average' amount?

[factor-fiction]

This says average salary (provisional figure) for full time employees in 2013 was £517 pw

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/ashe/annual-survey-of-hours-and-earnings/2013-provisional-results/info-ashe-2013.html

[THECORBYLOON]

FACTOR, your answers weren't there when I started typing.

[black_cat51]

when politicians talk of average salary, i think they mean an adult working full time at minimum wage

[Graham-W]

"You may think this is picky, but if eighty folk are getting £15,000 a year and twenty are getting £100,000 a year what is the 'average' amount?"

Average salary would be £32,000.

[Graham-W]

black_cat51

You can't calculate average salary at minimum wage. It must include all full time wages, from top to bottom and the number of people earning these wages.

[tonyav]

That is correct, Graham, many years ago that is how I was told that the average salary was worked out.

[Graham-W]

I used to earn about the "Average Salary" but I had to work 3 shifts and weekends to make it an "Average Salary". Without the enhancements I would have been well below the "Average Salary".

[tonyav]

I always used to say to our shop steward at pay rise negotiating time to just ask the management for the average wage !.

[stewey]

"If eighty folk are getting £15,000 a year and twenty are getting £100,000 a year what is the 'average' amount?" If you use the modal average, the answer would be $15,000 (I don't have a pound symbol).

[Graham-W]

stewey
Agreed. £15,000 would be correct for both the median and the mode, but "average" is generally accepted to be the mean.

"There's lies, damned lies, and statistics. ( Benjamin Disraeli )

[stewey]

I have always thought, Graham-W, that there should be an addition to that quotation: "There's lies, damned lies, and statistics, and then politics.".

[THECORBYLOON]

In the example I gave, one average gives £32,000 even though that is double what 80% of the folk were paid so is it a true reflection of the facts?

[stewey]

Averages are seldom an honest or true reflection of the facts. However, they usually are mathematically "correct"

[Peter Pedant]

I havent seen " £ 24k anywhere. Comes up on the news every now and then.

The average pension is said to £8k p a but I can hardly beleive it is that low.