# How do I calculate the average salary of a data set?

I have been given a dataset and been tasked with calculating the average wage for different job titles. The data includes a mix of ranges (min-max) and values.

If we assume for the job title, Developer, these are the wages:

1. $$80K - 120K 2.$$90K
3. $$120K - 150K 4.$$95K
5. $$50K 6.$$200K - 225K
7. $$100K 8.$$100 – 150K
9. $$50K - 120K 10.$$85K


How should I calculate the average wage for a Developer?

My thoughts are to first excluded wage information for 5, 6 and 9 as these look like outliers. I would then take the average of each range and add these together with the other wages, and then divide by the number of wages.

This would give:

(100 + 90 + 135 + 95 + 100 + 125 + 85)/7 = \$104K


I would then conclude that the average wage for a Developer at Company is 104K, with the range 80K to 150K.

Is this approach correct?

EDIT

80K-120K means that there's one person whose income is somewhere in that range.

• What does 80K-120K mean? Does it mean there's one person whose income is somewhere in that range and we're not sure where? or does it mean there's a group of people, one making 80K, one making 120K, the others making somewhere in between? If it's a group, then when you average you should weight the salary by the number of people in the group. – Gerry Myerson Mar 22 at 0:38