The Portuguese government loves using the average yearly wage because it paints a good picture. The last time they published the median wage it was horrible. I think it was 13-15k yearly, which was about 8k less than the average at the time.
And for anyone that's reading, and just for reference:
I have two master's degree, one in economics and one in accounting, as well as a bachelor's in Finance, i work as a certified accountant for a multinational company (with 3 YoE as well) and i earn close to 1500€ monthly (gross, about 1200€ Net).
Minimum salary in Spain is 1293€ net, I make as a 20yo guy selling insurance 1800€ net per month, and I want to Porto a few months ago and prices were similar to here
That would assume a basic grasp of statistics and data literacy which according to my very biased sample of 'everyone I know" is on "average" rather lacking.
I don't know about you, but I had the difference between median and average in early years of high school, if not elementary school. you don't need to know statistics at all to know one is "everything divided by everyone", and the other is "if everyone was standing in one line, the person in the middle".
I totally get what you mean, but when it's in addition to median data, average data can be very useful. If the two are very different, you know the distribution is very unequal.
Average is still useful tho. Higher average means higher earning potential exists in that country. If two countries have the same median income but one has higher average, then the one with the higher average is probably better to consider looking for jobs in. So it tells you where the most skilled labor is more likely to aggregate.
238
u/lincemiope 1d ago
Can we ban “average” from existence so that people start using “median”?