Question

in 1994, major league baseball players went on strike. at the time, the average salary was $1,049,589, and the median salary was $337,500. if you were representing the owners, which summary would you use to convince the public that a strike was not needed? if you were a player, which would you use? why was there such a large discrepancy between the mean and median salaries? explain.
select the correct answers below.
if you were representing the owners, you would use the average salary to convince the public that a strike was not needed. if you were a player, you would use the median salary to convince the public that a strike was needed. the average and median salaries differ so greatly because
options:

• the distribution of salaries is skewed left.
• the mean is resistant to outliers, but the median is not.
• the distribution of salaries is skewed right.
• the distribution of salaries is symmetric.

Explanation:

To determine why the mean (average) and median salaries differ greatly, we analyze the distribution:

• A right - skewed distribution has a few very large values (outliers on the right). In the case of baseball salaries, a small number of star players have extremely high salaries.
• The mean is affected by these large outliers (it gets pulled up), while the median is the middle value and is not as affected by extreme values.
• A left - skewed distribution would have the mean lower than the median, which is not the case here. A symmetric distribution would have mean and median close. Also, the mean is not resistant to outliers (the median is resistant), so the option about mean being resistant is wrong. So the distribution of salaries is skewed right.

Answer:

the distribution of salaries is skewed right.