1. The problem asks which measure of center (mean, median, or mode) best represents the salaries to support the claim that lower level employees earn much less than the national average. 2. The mean is the arithmetic average, calculated by summing all salaries and dividing by the number of employees: $$\text{mean} = \frac{\sum \text{salaries}}{\text{number of employees}}$$. 3. The median is the middle value when all salaries are sorted in order. It divides the data into two equal halves. 4. The mode is the most frequently occurring salary value. 5. Important rule: The mean is sensitive to extreme values (outliers), such as very high salaries of management, which can raise the mean and not reflect the typical lower level employee's salary. 6. The median is resistant to outliers and better represents the typical salary of the majority (lower level employees) because it focuses on the middle value. 7. The mode is less useful here because salaries are often unique or have many different values, so mode may not represent the center well. 8. Therefore, to support the claim that lower level employees earn much less than the national average, the median is the best measure of center because it is not skewed by high management salaries and reflects the typical lower level employee's salary. **Final answer:** Use the median to represent the employees' salaries in this context.