A 1991 lawsuit against Westvaco Corp. (makers of paper products) looked at 10 employees who were considered for layoffs. Their ages were:
25, 33, 35, 38, 48, 53, 55, 55, 56, 64Of those 10 people, the ones who were actually laid off were the two 55 year olds and the 64 year old. The mean age of the 3 people who were laid off was 58 while the mean age of the 7 people who weren’t laid off was 41.1428571. That is a gap of 16.8571429 years.
In this situation, what are the variables (there are two). Which variable is explanatory and which is response?
What are the average ages of the people who were laid off versus the people who weren’t? How big is the difference between the two averages?