You make a great point. Another example: 10 workers each make $30,000. One employee leaves and in not replaced, but his/her workload and 1/2 of their salary is divided among the remaining 9. Numerically, the average salary increased by 5.6% (inferring a raise), but the demands of the job increased as well (11.1%). Not saying that has happened, but there isn’t enough data presented to tell.

My salary was mid $30s, your statistic tell me there were a lot of employees making less than $20,000.00 per year and their increases in percentage would have been higher in order to get the $1,000.00 per year raise. Example, someone making $9.00 per hour in 2008 and gets 22% raises by 2015 is now making $10.98 per hour, a far cry from getting rich. What I have found out with people using percentages, the number is actually low and its a way to manipulate peoples thinking. My $35K salary went up on average $0.32 per hour per year ($665.60) to $39,725.00.

It would be interesting to know what the employee counts were for each if the years. Did it increase, decrease or hold steady. The raw numbers can say one thing; a deeper analysis can say another. Not enough disclosure to tell.

Jeremy -this is a calculation and the numbers are easily verified. Average salaries, which is salary expense divided employees, increased 22%. This does not mean everyone got a 22% raise -some got more, some got less.