The thing with the median is NONE of the other numbers matter. All that the median is, is the middle term, so they would have taken x pilots salaries and the median is simply the middle guys salary. None of the other salaries matter when computing the median. The median is used to minimize those extreame variates such as the 747 captain pay and a 1900 fo pay.
Medians are commonly used in per capita income studies and salary studies to minimize the effect of the few highly paid people. The mean will always be higher then the median in these cases.
Im going to ask my statistics proffesor tommorow about this and see what he says.

Either way pilots is one of the highest paid proffesion there is. The majority of Americans make about $40,000 approximatly.