Statistics Saturday: Wage and Hour Statistics Tools

Sampling Error, n. the difference between the
true, and generally unknown, value of a statistic,
such as the mean average salary, of a parent
population and the value that is estimated from a
sample.

Discussion:

Sampling error in commonly presented in national
surveys. For instance, a survey may report that
27%, with a sampling error of +/-3.5%, of the
employees were interested in applying for a given
job.

The sampling error in this example would
mean that it can be expected that had the entire
population been asked the question, between
23.5% and 30.5% of the employees would have
reported that they were interested in the job in
question.