This is another question that could be interpreted differently: weighted Salaries V unweighted
Some of the employees earned a salary for several years before getting a raise, wouldn't you want to weight the averages to get a true average salary for each employee? Otherwise it is just the average of the different salary levels someone has recieved. Instead of the average salary over a period of time. The difference between the two interpretations would be the latter can be used to calulate how much money that a person was paid over their tenure at the company, the other doesn't tell you much of anything...
Hi Sarah!
Thanks for reaching out.
You're absolutely right. To get a true average salary that reflects what employees actually earned over their tenure, it's important to consider the length of time they spent at each salary level. This weighted average would provide a more accurate representation of their earnings, as it accounts for how long they earned each salary before receiving a raise. However, the main focus is to learn how to use the AVG() function rather than the exact calculation.
Hope this helps.
Best,
Tsvetelin
Please consider asking students to average a column or field then instead of expecting them to incorrectly average something. Later you could have students evaluate an average salary. These details matter in Data Science, we are asked to analyze and question, and even in the beginning we all need to be analyzing and questioning our findings.