A primary factor in perpetuating the low salaries of women workers has

Question

Which of the following best completes the passage below?

A primary factor in perpetuating the low salaries of women workers has been their segregation in the so-called pink-collar occupations, such as nursing, teaching, library science, and secretarial work. Partly because these jobs have traditionally been held by women, their salary levels have been depressed, and, despite increased attempts to unionize these workers in recent years, their pay continues to lag. Moreover, although a large percentage of women than ever before are now entering and remaining in the job market, most continue to gravitate toward the pink-collar fields, despite the lower salaries. It seems clear, therefore, that if the average salaries of women workers are to approach those of men, ______

(A) labor unions must redouble their efforts to improve the lot of working women
(B) society’s perception of pink-collar jobs as less important and less demanding than other jobs must be changed
(C) more men must be encouraged to enter fields traditionally occupied by women
(D) the number of jobs in the pink-collar fields relative to the size of the work force as a whole must be markedly increased
(E) more women must enter occupations other than those traditionally reserved for them

nandeta · Accepted Answer

Which of the following best completes the passage below?

A primary factor in perpetuating the low salaries of women workers has been their segregation in the so-called pink-collar occupations, such as nursing, teaching, library science, and secretarial work. Partly because these jobs have traditionally been held by women, their salary levels have been depressed, and, despite increased attempts to unionize these workers in recent years, their pay continues to lag. Moreover, although a large percentage of women than ever before are now entering and remaining in the job market, most continue to gravitate toward the pink-collar fields, despite the lower salaries. It seems clear, therefore, that if the average salaries of women workers are to approach those of men, ______

(A) labor unions must redouble their efforts to improve the lot of working women
Labor union is one part only. The major chunk is these women divert towards these jobs easily. And they need improve their salary and not their lot of women.

(B) society’s perception of pink-collar jobs as less important and less demanding than other jobs must be changed
Pink collar jobs are very important. It is just that supply of women is increased against the demand.

(C) more men must be encouraged to enter fields traditionally occupied by women
Wrong. This was my choice but we are not concerned with men entering as this argument is about demand and supply.

(D) the number of jobs in the pink-collar fields relative to the size of the work force as a whole must be markedly increased
Wrong. This is a future prediction that we can do but not conclude from the argument.

(E) more women must enter occupations other than those traditionally reserved for them
  Right. If more women will enter other occupations, naturally supply for pink collar jobs will decrease.

davidhsiou · Answer

"A primary factor in perpetuating the low salaries of women workers has been their segregation in the so-called pink-collar occupations"

The answer is stated right in the first sentence! Segregation in pink-collar occupations has caused perpetuation of low salaries. For women to increase their salaries, they might need to seek out occupations not traditionally held by them. E is the best answer

DinoPen · Answer

I said E.
My notes were the following: 
Low salaries of women => pink collared occupations
Pink collared occupations held my women. 
pink collared job pay has decreased
Therefore, in order for average salaries of women to approach those of men, ___
The immediate thought I had was that the women should go into the industries that are typically manned by men. E was the only choice.

vpoddar · Answer

Why not C? Isn't the argument similar to E? If more men enter the jobs traditionally held by women, the pay will increase.

Sam1993 · Answer

Answer to this lies in the 1st statement by author that " A primary factor in perpetuating the low salaries of women workers has been their segregation in the so-called pink-collar occupations ", so women need to enter into fields which are not traditionally reserved for them or they need to take up non pink collar jobs to increase their average salaries.
Hence option E is the correct answer

BDM11 · Answer

Hello  nandeta , in the passage it is stated that the workers are trying to form a union to raise their concern. So , wouldn't be option A also a good continuation of the passage? I am just facing issue in eliminating between options A and E.

slk00 · Answer

Hi, The passage already talks about how “ despite increased attempts to unionize these workers in recent years, their pay continues to lag” and that women “ continue to gravitate toward the pink-collar fields” almost gives away the fact that the labor unions effort won’t stand a chance to improve the average pay, hence they MUST enter those that aren’t traditionally reserved for them where there are better chances of higher pay hence increasing their overall average pay.

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SatvikVedala · Answer

This Question depends on demand & supply

Since there were/are women entering into these pink-collar occupations, an increased inflow will definetely reduce the demad for such occupations

Hence, if more women enter occupations other than those traditionally reserved for them, women workers can have higher salary levels & demand in the pink collar field reduces there by increasing the demand & salary levels for them too.

SomeOneUnique · Answer

Which of the following best completes the passage below?

A primary factor in perpetuating the low salaries of women workers has been their segregation in the so-called pink-collar occupations, such as nursing, teaching, library science, and secretarial work. Partly because these jobs have traditionally been held by women, their salary levels have been depressed, and, despite increased attempts to unionize these workers in recent years, their pay continues to lag. Moreover, although a large percentage of women than ever before are now entering and remaining in the job market, most continue to gravitate toward the pink-collar fields, despite the lower salaries. It seems clear, therefore, that if the average salaries of women workers are to approach those of men, ______

(A) labor unions must redouble their efforts to improve the lot of working women 
 (B) society’s perception of pink-collar jobs as less important and less demanding than other jobs must be changed 
 (C) more men must be encouraged to enter fields traditionally occupied by women 
 (D) the number of jobs in the pink-collar fields relative to the size of the workforce as a whole must be markedly increased 
 (E) more women must enter occupations other than those traditionally reserved for them

The author mainly discusses how pink-collar occupations are affected by low salaries. 
 We need to complete the conclusion or I shall say we need to pick the conclusion from the given options. 
 A: This option can be eliminated as it is generic because labor unions would work for white-collar jobs, pink-collar jobs, blue-collar jobs, and so on. 
 B: Society is comprised of men and women but the author is concerned about women. Hence B would not be a good conclusion. 
 C: If more men enter the fields traditionally occupied by women, then pink-collar jobs would render even less salary to women. Eliminate C. 
 D: After making the increase claimed by option D, the salaries drawn by men-occupied jobs would remain high. That would not help pull up the salaries of pink-collar jobs. Thus we can not dress up option D as the author's conclusion. 
 E: If we take E to be true then fields open for women would increase; a variety of jobs, other than traditionally occupied by women, would render more opportunities to women and average salaries would match the salaries of men. Hence E is the correct option.

shwedash · Answer

This is what I was thinking too. To me, C and E sound like extremely similar arguments.

RITESH1984 · Answer

Encouraging men wouldn't guarantee they would actually take those jobs. Hence E

sg8595 · Answer

The argument is about the progress of salaries for women and the premise being that women themselves gravitate towards the pink collar job which impedes that progression. What men need to do is not even the scope of the argument.

shwedash · Answer

Thanks!! It finally clicked for me.

suntprovident · Answer

Just debating the merits of answer choice B vs E

(b) Would increase the value of pink collared jobs in the society and therefore the wages

(E) States that more women should enter into fields occupied traditionally by men. This however may not necessarily mean an increase in wages as suggested. For example heavy labour intensive jobs such as industrial labour would entail more women participation but would not necessarily mean higher wage translation.

Can any expert help me see why B isn't a better answer than E

AllisonBell · Answer

This is definitely a subtle distinction. A lot of it rests on the word  must    in the answer choices. This question is quietly  very similar to an Assumption question — asking what  has to be true  in order for average salaries of women to approach those of men.

(B) Would a change in society’s perception of pink-collar jobs ultimately help increase the value and wages of those jobs? Hopefully! I think your logic is sound there. But  must  that happen in order for the average salaries of women workers to approach those of men? Not necessarily.  It’s possible that women’s salaries could increase without a shift in values.

(E) You’re right that women entering other fields wouldn’t guarantee an increase in wages. It might be one of many things that needs to happen. But again, the question is asking for one thing that  must  happen. And the premises have gone to great lengths to suggest that there’s no way women will see an average wage increase if they continue to primarily enter pink collar fields — salary levels are depressed and union efforts haven’t helped. So the argument is pushing towards the conclusion that  at least one necessary piece of the puzzle is for women to shift into jobs outside pink-collar fields.

A silly but analogous question stem: if dogs are to fly, then ____

B) People must believe they can fly 
 E) They must acquire some sort of mechanism by which to stay off the ground

Choice (B) would be nice, but it’s not necessary to enable dogs to fly. Choice (E) isn’t everything that’s needed — dogs would still have to learn to fly, etc — but it is one thing that must happen.

We get into assumption questions in our Free GMAT Trial Class if you’d like to check it out!

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We get into assumption questions in our  Free GMAT Trial Class  if you’d like to check it out!

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A primary factor in perpetuating the low salaries of women workers has

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A primary factor in perpetuating the low salaries of women workers has

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