Some stockholders want to know whether the mean salary for male employees in a large company is higher than the mean salary for female employees. The company allows them access to salary information for a random sample of 100 male and 100 female employees, and the mean salaries are $51,000 for the males and $49,500 for the females.
a. Are the mean salaries in this example statistics or parameters? Explain.
b. Based on these means, can the shareholders determine that the mean salary for males in the company is higher than the mean salary for females? Explain.
c. If they selected new random samples of 100 males and 100 females, would the average salaries of those samples be $51,000 and $49,500? Explain.