FINAL REPORT Final Report - NER 2018 6Mar2018 (For Publication) | Page 48

National Employment Returns (NER) 2018
7. SALARIES AND COMPENSATION
Overview
The report focuses on the median, that is the data value at which 50% of data values are above it, and
50% of data values are below it.
Median is used because the distribution of salaries and compensation can be wide, with more responses
of employees earning extremely high salaries or low salaries and/or the unequal distribution of sample
size. When using the mean to calculate the average of a skewed distribution, it is highly influenced by
those values at the upper end of the distribution and thus may not be truly representative of the average
salaries and compensations of the employees.
It is essential to note that the composition of workforce used for the NER changes from year to year,
which can affect the changes in median salaries and compensations.
This section covers the average fixed pay and variable pay for the employees and the figure below
shows the definition of different types of pay.
Figure 2.1 Definition of Fixed and Variable Pay
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