For a report I am writing using Census Bureau data (CPS), I am calculating median wages. I used PROC MEANS to pull out the medians. For the workforce 18-74 with wages in the last 12 months, PROC MEANS gives me a median of $47,000. However, I need the standard errors for statistical testing, so I ran PROC SURVEYMEANS to get those. For the same group as before, PROC SURVEYMEANS gives me a median of $46,863. Can someone explain why the medians calculated by the two PROCs differ? Note the *means* calculated by both PROCs match. I realize the values are close but I need to be able to justify/explain which median to use.
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