Category Archives: labor market

Mean and Median Average Hourly Earnings Growth Compared

Anonymous tells a story about an old engineer regaling people with aphorism like “you may know the significant digits but do you know the significance of the number”, in talking about what the average joe is experiencing. Here are some easily calculated numbers showing the distinction between mean and median average hourly earnings (note that median usual weekly earnings are the product of median earnings and median hours worked).

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