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st4n13l t1_ja5hgpy wrote

The source calls them "lower-income" not "low-income" which has a federal definition. How are they defining "lower-income"?

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tildenpark OP t1_ja5hycr wrote

From the source:

>Originally drawn for the first edition, published in 2012, the sample comprises occupations that in 2012 were licensed by at least one state and recognized by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as ones in which practitioners earned incomes below the national average.

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st4n13l t1_ja5jdb0 wrote

I must have missed that. Hopefully by average they are referring to median and not mean.

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tildenpark OP t1_ja5mhkx wrote

Yeah, “low-income” has a few different definitions across different agencies and years for different purposes. Sometimes it’s a multiple of a “poverty threshold” (e.g 200% of the poverty threshold) and sometimes it’s relative to median income in the area (e.g. 80% of the median family income for the area).

This survey seems to be inline with the latter. When averaging across occupational averages, median and mean are not as egregiously different as median vs mean household income as outliers are sort of accounted for across groups (kinda). But I agree with your sentiment.

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