Know-How Exchange : Strategy

The median is the number at which half of the salaries will be above and half will be below.

List your seven salaries from highest to lowest or lowest to highest. The salary that comes in at number 4 (1-3 above and 5-7 below) is your median.

Not to be confused with median is "mean," which is a fancy word for "average."

Probably worth looking at the standard deviation, too, which if I remember correctly is the square root of the sum of the squares of the deviation of each salary from the average of the seven salaries.

Statistically, assuming a normal distribution, 68% of the salaries will be within +/- one standard deviation of the average, while 95% should be within two std deviations.

Assuming the basis for comparison between the seven salaries is valid, i.e. they are based in areas with similar cost indices, it can be assumed that the salary should be negotiable within the range of values.

Any problems with this, e-mail me the details (via my profile) and I'll run it through an Excel spreadsheet for you and come back with some ideas. Free, but don't tell everyone!

Hope this helps.

ChrisB