The issues surrounding the levels and structure of executive compensation have gained added prominence in the wake of the financial crisis that erupted in the fall of 2008.

Based on the 2006 compensation data obtained from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website, it was determined that the mean and the standard deviation of compensation for the 500 highest paid CEOs in publicly traded U.S. companies are $10.32 million and $9.78 million, respectively. An analyst randomly chooses 32 CEO compensations for 2006.

a. Is it necessary to apply the finite population correction factor? Explain.

b. Is the sampling distribution of the sample mean approximately normally distributed? Explain.

c. Calculate the expected value and the standard error of the sample mean.

d. What is the probability that the sample mean is more than $12 million?