MySQL Aggregate Function Exercises: Get the difference between the highest and lowest salaries

Last update on February 02 2026 11:01:40 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

MySQL Aggregate Function: Exercise-8 with Solution

Write a query to get the difference between the highest and lowest salaries.

Sample table: employees

+-------------+-------------+-------------+----------+--------------------+------------+------------+----------+----------------+------------+---------------+
| EMPLOYEE_ID | FIRST_NAME  | LAST_NAME   | EMAIL    | PHONE_NUMBER       | HIRE_DATE  | JOB_ID     | SALARY   | COMMISSION_PCT | MANAGER_ID | DEPARTMENT_ID |
+-------------+-------------+-------------+----------+--------------------+------------+------------+----------+----------------+------------+---------------+
|         100 | Steven      | King        | SKING    | 515.123.4567       | 1987-06-17 | AD_PRES    | 24000.00 |           0.00 |          0 |   		  90 |
|         101 | Neena       | Kochhar     | NKOCHHAR | 515.123.4568       | 1987-06-18 | AD_VP      | 17000.00 |           0.00 |        100 |            90 |
|         102 | Lex         | De Haan     | LDEHAAN  | 515.123.4569       | 1987-06-19 | AD_VP      | 17000.00 |           0.00 |        100 |            90 |
|         103 | Alexander   | Hunold      | AHUNOLD  | 590.423.4567       | 1987-06-20 | IT_PROG    |  9000.00 |           0.00 |        102 |            60 |
|         104 | Bruce       | Ernst       | BERNST   | 590.423.4568       | 1987-06-21 | IT_PROG    |  6000.00 |           0.00 |        103 |            60 |
|         105 | David       | Austin      | DAUSTIN  | 590.423.4569       | 1987-06-22 | IT_PROG    |  4800.00 |           0.00 |        103 |            60 |
|         106 | Valli       | Pataballa   | VPATABAL | 590.423.4560       | 1987-06-23 | IT_PROG    |  4800.00 |           0.00 |        103 |            60 |
|         107 | Diana       | Lorentz     | DLORENTZ | 590.423.5567       | 1987-06-24 | IT_PROG    |  4200.00 |           0.00 |        103 |            60 |
|         108 | Nancy       | Greenberg   | NGREENBE | 515.124.4569       | 1987-06-25 | FI_MGR     | 12000.00 |           0.00 |        101 |           100 |
.........
|         206 | William     | Gietz       | WGIETZ   | 515.123.8181       | 1987-10-01 | AC_ACCOUNT |  8300.00 |           0.00 |        205 |           110 |
+-------------+-------------+-------------+----------+--------------------+------------+------------+----------+----------------+------------+---------------+

View the table

Code:


-- Calculating the difference between the maximum and minimum salaries
SELECT MAX(salary) - MIN(salary) DIFFERENCE 
-- Selecting data from the employees table
FROM employees;

Explanation:

This SQL query calculates the difference between the maximum and minimum salaries in the employees table.
The MAX() function finds the maximum value in the salary column.
The MIN() function finds the minimum value in the salary column.
The difference between these values is calculated by subtracting the minimum salary from the maximum salary.
The result is displayed in the result set with the alias 'DIFFERENCE'.

Pictorial Presentation of the above query

Go to:

PREV :Write a query to get the number of employees with the same job.
NEXT :Write a query to find the manager ID and the salary of the lowest-paid employee for that manager.

MySQL Code Editor:

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