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Abhi077
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20 Mar 2020, 22:24
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C
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
75%
(hard)
Question Stats:
53% (01:43) correct
47%
(01:50)
wrong
based on 353
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
City budget advisor: If Thomaston wants to decrease its unemployment rate, it should lower the minimum wage, so companies can hire more employees. Records from neighboring cities show that whenever the minimum wage is lowered, within three years the city's unemployment rate decreases by 1 to 2 percent.
Which of the following would it be most helpful to know in order to assess the city budget advisor's suggestion?
A. Have city budget advisors in other cities successfully lobbied to lower the minimum wage in order to decrease unemployment?
B. Does a significant percentage of Thomaston's resident population work full time in Thomaston?
C. In cities where the minimum wage remains stable, what is the percent change in unemployment rate over a typical three-year period?
D. What proportion of the workers that would be affected by a lowered minimum wage live in Thomaston?
E. Do companies ever lose money after lowering the minimum wage?
Which of the following would it be most helpful to know in order to assess the city budget advisor's suggestion?
A. Have city budget advisors in other cities successfully lobbied to lower the minimum wage in order to decrease unemployment?
B. Does a significant percentage of Thomaston's resident population work full time in Thomaston?
C. In cities where the minimum wage remains stable, what is the percent change in unemployment rate over a typical three-year period?
D. What proportion of the workers that would be affected by a lowered minimum wage live in Thomaston?
E. Do companies ever lose money after lowering the minimum wage?
Source - Ready4Gmat
Evaluate the argument
Evaluate the argument
21 Mar 2020, 00:02
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The argument says that because records from neighboring cities show that whenever the minimum wage is lowered, within three years the city's unemployment rate decreases by 1 to 2 percent, T also must follow suit if it wants to decrease unemployment. So if we find out how the other places match with T, we can assess the question better.
A. The argument is not dependent on whether the process was lobbied or not.
B. It is irrelevant to the argument.
C. This choice will assess whether there were other reasons for the decrease in unemployment other than the stated correlation. Good.
D. The proportion of workers affected by minimum wages is irrelevant.
E. Companies losing money can still increase intake of employees.
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A. The argument is not dependent on whether the process was lobbied or not.
B. It is irrelevant to the argument.
C. This choice will assess whether there were other reasons for the decrease in unemployment other than the stated correlation. Good.
D. The proportion of workers affected by minimum wages is irrelevant.
E. Companies losing money can still increase intake of employees.
Posted from my mobile device
Abhi077
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Joined: 25 Sep 2018
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Concentration: Finance, Strategy
Schools: Rotman '21 Jindal '21 Stern '21
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21 Mar 2020, 23:19
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OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
As always, the first thing to do is be clear on what the question is asking us, which, in this case, is to determine which information would be the most useful in assessing the advisor's argument (which is that lowering the minimum wage will lower the unemployment rate, based on evidence from other cities). We aren't trying to determine whether the advisor's argument is good, only what is the best thing to know when evaluating her argument.
Whatever valuable information the question in (A) might give us is already in the passage, whether or not the minimum wage was lowered via a "successful lobb[y]." Where most of Thomaston's residents work (and whether or not they work full time) does not clearly relate to minimum wages and unemployment rates; choice (B) isn't the best answer. Because we already have information about the effects of lowering the minimum wage in nearby cities, the information we could get from asking (C) about normal fluctuation would be valuable; this may be our answer. Though clearly tied to the topic of this passage, (D) isn't relevant to assessing the argument itself; it asks a question about the social effects of lowering the minimum wage, not whether doing so will affect the unemployment rate at all. Choice (E) is not directly relevant to what's important here, which is the unemployment rate.
Choice C is our answer
As always, the first thing to do is be clear on what the question is asking us, which, in this case, is to determine which information would be the most useful in assessing the advisor's argument (which is that lowering the minimum wage will lower the unemployment rate, based on evidence from other cities). We aren't trying to determine whether the advisor's argument is good, only what is the best thing to know when evaluating her argument.
Whatever valuable information the question in (A) might give us is already in the passage, whether or not the minimum wage was lowered via a "successful lobb[y]." Where most of Thomaston's residents work (and whether or not they work full time) does not clearly relate to minimum wages and unemployment rates; choice (B) isn't the best answer. Because we already have information about the effects of lowering the minimum wage in nearby cities, the information we could get from asking (C) about normal fluctuation would be valuable; this may be our answer. Though clearly tied to the topic of this passage, (D) isn't relevant to assessing the argument itself; it asks a question about the social effects of lowering the minimum wage, not whether doing so will affect the unemployment rate at all. Choice (E) is not directly relevant to what's important here, which is the unemployment rate.
Choice C is our answer
