My State University has done a survey of its class of 2001 in anticipation of its tenth year reunion. The school has determined that the average male graduate of the class of 2001 was now making $54,000, while the average female graduate was making $36,000. The survey did not indicate how many were unemployed, out of the workforce by choice, deceased, etc., but just counted them as zeros in the average.
This school has experience to indicate that among employed graduates, 10% of male alumni will contribute to an alumni fund with an average contribution of 4% of annual pay. Female graduates are more likely to give (12%) and those who do give are more generous (5% of annual pay).
If there were 2,000 graduates in the class of 2001, how large a contribution will the school count on for its alumni fund?
Missing items. Need to know the composition of the class, male/female.
Also need to be able to figure out what the salary is for the average *working* male and *working* female.
And as someone who works with data some, need to know if the percentage average was developed as a simple arithmetic average of percentages of givers (and uniform along all salary levels) or if it is the total percentage of working payroll by gender.
buhhhh....er.... just realized that you cleverly engineered that so that each individual, male or female, would be giving $216 as long as you assume that the percentage is a percentage of total payroll. So, male or female - makes no difference - they each contribute the same amount on average, and if the percentage of unemployment for one group goes up, so does the pay, so the $216 is a per individual number regardless of employment status.
Good point about how the average is taken, but the most meaningful way here (when trying to predict the total) is the "salary-weighted" giving percent, as you correctly inferred.
