Of what use are these figures.
Todays news reports the sum is $12050 ,a bit more in fact.
How do people in rural towns who get half that get included.
Pensioners are not included are they.
Are cost increases based on this very unbalanced figure?

$12,050 a week? I've even tried moving a decimal point around and it still doesn't make sense. $1,200.5 a week? $120.50?...wut?

Belly, that is a mean figure. It's arrived at by adding every bit of personal income together and dividing by the number of taxpayers. A better measure would be the median, which was about $52000 last year, or mode, which I have no information on.

The median is the figure which has about 50% of the total population earning more and about 50% earning less. The mode is the figure that the largest number of people earn.

To quote Wikipaedia: "The median is primarily used for skewed distributions, which it summarizes differently than the arithmetic mean. Consider the multiset { 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 14 }. The median is 2 in this case, as is the mode, and it might be seen as a better indication of central tendency than the arithmetic mean of 4.

Calculation of medians is a popular technique in summary statistics and summarizing statistical data, since it is simple to understand and easy to calculate, while also giving a measure that is more robust in the presence of outlier values than is the mean."

The Govt likes the mean figure because it makes things look "better" than the majority may feel is the case from their own experience. It means that when they give themselves a rise and stop everyone else from getting one, the mean figure still goes up.

St G I understand you do not like me, take that on board, got my point in wrong place ok too.
But you break out with pride at times telling us how rude you are on your blog, mate mind if I say get a life?
I understand the averaging out, what true use is it?
1.205 a week or 490 how can it be used?
Now in some country villages the annual income would be below the lessor as pensions and benefits are mosts income.

Hi Belly,
Well as one of those country village people i can tell you that i do not earn $1205 per week from my small business. This is not a complaint and i am sure many will wonder why i bother with all that work for a small wage. Well i simply just don't need a big wage. I work less and manage my finances. i do get family tax benefit which helps but grow veg and kill my own meat. My point is that if you live in the country and manage things well money is no problem.
I see the people you speak of every fortnight roaming up and down the main street. Mostly they are buying booze, smokes and chips. It is the old turkey week feather week problem. Mostly they are low socio and either don't care or don't want to know about managing the money they have. Why? well that is a subject for another post but i will say one appreciates the dollar they earn through hard work more than the one they are given.
What i would really like to know is how the hell could anyone survive on $1205 a week in sydney or melbourne. You would loose half in rent or mortgage repayments. Dosen't leave much for a life.

Good story Belly. Genuinely didn't get what you were on about. I don't like you? I don't know you. Considering some muppets that hang out here you're actually one of the decent ones. I can't be bothered sugar coating stuff for people here.

Next time I'll just ask what the number is?

Hugs and Kisses.