An Ivy League professor has revealed the answers she received after asking her students what they believe the average US worker earns in a year.
As reported by CNN, the answers from a group of students have gone viral on social media after they were asked by Professor Nina Strohminger their thoughts on US salaries.
Strohminger teaches legal studies and business ethics at the prestigious Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and recently wanted to get her students thinking about others.
Taking to Twitter, she wrote: "I asked Wharton students what they thought the average American worker makes per year and 25% of them thought it was over six figures."
She added: "One of them thought it was $800k. Really not sure what to make of this."
Per USA Today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that based on data from 2021, the average American worker actually makes $51,480 (£38,200).
After her original post received more than 35,000 retweets, Strohminger wanted to address certain issues that were being brought up by fellow Twitter users.
Firstly, she said: "A lot of people want to conclude that this says something special about Wharton students— I’m not sure it does. People are notoriously bad at making this kind of estimate, thinking the gap between rich and poor is smaller than it is."
She then added: "This was indeed why I asked [business school] students: I was curious if they were as biased as everyone else," before sharing links to two academic papers on equal pay and wealth inequity.
Nevertheless, the students' answers certainly sparked a conversation on the social media platform.
"Methinks a bunch of Wharton students might have had a slightly different experience with relation to familial wealth growing up than the average American as well," one Twitter user replied.
A second added: "The average Wharton students' parents probably do make $800k per year..."
A third Twitter user commented: "This is why the wealth gap is so toxic to our society. The rich literally have no concept of how anyone actually lives. And most people I've met do not make even 45k a year."
"It tells me that these Wharton students grew up in privilege and never experienced an eviction notice," a fourth wrote.
In response to the viral tweets, CNN's Michael Smerconish said that if future economic policymakers can't empathize with people in lesser circumstances, then society will suffer.
Smerconish also pointed out that the average tuition fee at Wharton is $80,000.
