Viral Tweet: Wharton Students Think the Average American Makes Six Figures

A Wharton professor’s viral tweet this past week is showing the glaring wealth gap between privileged and everyday Americans.

Nina Strohminger, a legal studies and business law professor at Wharton, tweeted that one quarter of her students thought the average American worker’s salary was over six figures, with one student even saying the average salary was $800,000 a year.

“I asked Wharton students what they thought the average American worker makes per year and 25% of them thought it was over six figures,” Strohminger tweeted on Wednesday. “One of them thought it was $800k. Really not sure what to make of this (The real number is $45k).”

SOCIAL MEDIA SLAMS STUDENTS

The average 2021 annual salary in the U.S. was $53,383, according to the Social Security Administration. Annual tuition at Wharton is $80,432 per year.

Many social media users were quick to call out the students highlighting the privileged environments of Ivy League schools.

“It tells me that these Wharton students grew up in privilege and never experienced an eviction notice,” @BuccieroSandra tweets.

“The Median income of a family at U-Penn is 195,500 and 71% come from the top 20%,” @james_roe tweets. “Just 3.3% come from the bottom 20%. It’s presumably even worse in the Wharton Business School.”

THE DEAN STEPS IN

For Erika James, the school dean, this incident served as a teachable moment for students.

It’s likely some student responses were representative of what we psychologists call the “anchoring effect” – or, having our personal experiences and backgrounds serve as reference points for how we view the world,” James wrote in her Linkedin blog. And while we cannot change where we come from, we can – and should – work to understand where others are coming from.”

At the same time, James shared that the Wharton community is far more diverse that its Twitter critics would acknowledge.

“At Wharton and Penn, we are proud to ensure that those reference points are informed by a diversity of students. Nearly half of Wharton undergraduates are female, while 20% are non-US citizens. In the Wharton undergraduate Class of 2025, over 60% self-identify as students of color, while 12% are first generation. This distinctive profile creates a rich environment for individuals to learn, while also broadening their exposure to lived experiences different than their own.”

Sources: Twitter, Social Security Administration