Dan,

It's a bit messy but you could do this. Assume your data layout are
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Emp 10,000 11,000 12,000 13,000 11,500
Emp 13000 13000 14000 10000 12,500
Emp 13000 12000 11000 10000 11,500

Ive left out 2005 - 2008 because I didn't want it to wrap but the above
table continues to column J for 2008.
Enter this formula in K2 and copy down
=MAX(AVERAGE(B2:D2),AVERAGE(C2:E2),AVERAGE(D2:F2), AVERAGE(F2:H2),AVERAGE(G2:I2),AVERAGE(H2:J2))

Mike

"Dan" wrote:

I have a workbook which shows salaries for a number of employees over the
last 10 years. I need to find the average of the three highest consecutive
salaries over that period. The columns are ordered by date so it is not
possible to re-order each row.

2005 2006 2007 2008 Ave
Emp 1 10,000 11,000 12,000 13,000 12,000
Emp 2 13,000 13,000 14,000 10,000 13,333
Emp 3 13,000 12,000 11,000 10,000 12,000

Any help would be grately appreciated!
Dan