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In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will 19 May 2019, 18:48
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Hi, could I check, what is the antecendent of 'its' in 'its wages' ? What impact are they referring to? Impact of the inflation? or the impact of the legal minimum wage? The antecedent of its can only be a noun right? Please help to clarify. Thanks.

I interpreted this as the impact of the inflation on wages.
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In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will 01 Jun 2019, 02:44
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Leonaann
Hi, could I check, what is the antecendent of 'its' in 'its wages' ? What impact are they referring to? Impact of the inflation? or the impact of the legal minimum wage? The antecedent of its can only be a noun right? Please help to clarify. Thanks.

I interpreted this as the impact of the inflation on wages.
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The passage primarily discusses an increase of the minimum wage in Kirlandia. The author states that "opponents of this increase have argued that the resulting rise in wages will drive the inflation rate up." Here, opponents are discussing the possible result of "this increase," which refers back to the increase in minimum wage introduced in the first sentence.

The author goes on to say that "In fact its impact on wages will probably be negligible." "Its impact" refers to the impact of "this increase" -- or, the increase in minimum wage. So, the main conclusion of the argument is that the "impact [of the increased minimum wage] on wages will probably be negligible."

I hope that helps!
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In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will 08 Jun 2021, 21:54
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Hi GMATNinja,
How do we determine that this part: 'the resulting rise in wages will drive the inflation rate up', is not a conclusion. I thought that this (the above part) and 'no impact wages' both are conclusion, and searched for the answer choice that will weaken any of these two. I think there is some fault in my approach, but do not know what exactly. Please shed some lights on how to find the exact conclusion in this type of question arguments? Thank you!!!
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In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will 12 Jun 2021, 09:37
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Mck2023
Hi GMATNinja,
How do we determine that this part: 'the resulting rise in wages will drive the inflation rate up', is not a conclusion. I thought that this (the above part) and 'no impact wages' both are conclusion, and searched for the answer choice that will weaken any of these two. I think there is some fault in my approach, but do not know what exactly. Please shed some lights on how to find the exact conclusion in this type of question arguments? Thank you!!!
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When searching for a conclusion, you want to determine why the author wrote the passage. What is he/she trying to convince you, the reader, to be true?

The two statements that you've highlighted go against one another. The first states the view of some opponents of the increased minimum wage, who think that "the resulting rise in wages will drive the inflation rate up." In other words, these opponents think that the increased minimum wage will have a bad effect.

Then the author argues against this claim, saying that in fact, if the minimum wage is increased, "the impact on wages will probably be negligible." In other words, wages won't be impacted that much, so we don't need to worry about the bad effect mentioned by the opponents.

So, overall, why did the author write this passage? He/she is trying to convince you that the increase in minimum wage won't have a big negative impact on inflation. This is expressed in the line "its impact on wages will probably be negligible." The previous line serves as a counterpoint to this conclusion. To answer the question, we just need to weaken the author's argument that the impact of increasing the minimum wage will probably be negligible.

I hope that helps!
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In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will 09 Aug 2022, 00:15
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In below lines from argument. ''its impact on wages will be negligible'' whose impact? the rise in inflation's impact ??

''Opponents of this increase have argued that the resulting rise in wages will drive the inflation rate up. In fact its impact on wages will probably be negligible ''
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In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will 11 Aug 2022, 05:17
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himanshu0123
In below lines from argument. ''its impact on wages will be negligible'' whose impact? the rise in inflation's impact ??

''Opponents of this increase have argued that the resulting rise in wages will drive the inflation rate up. In fact its impact on wages will probably be negligible ''
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"Its impact on wages" refers to the impact of instituting the new, higher minimum wage.

In any case—You're right that this argument is very badly written. There's no way this problem is from GMAC.
In addition to the sloppy writing that you pointed out, there's a bigger problem: The conclusion of this argument isn't even there! (This argument is made to support the conclusion that the inflation rate is unlikely to increase.)
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In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will 16 Sep 2022, 22:25
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While I agree that C is the best choice that weakens the argument presented here, I am looking for correction on my approach as I was confused between option C and D, and this confusion made me waste precious time during the mock.

In Option D, From 'workers earn wages that tend to be much higher than the minimum wage' I inferred that the difference between the minimum wage and workers wage (from particular sectors) needs to be high, i.e., Worker's Wage - Minimum Wage = V. High
So if minimum wage increases, the worker's wage needs to be increased to maintain the greatest growth

Let me know where my analysis needs correction.
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In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will 18 Sep 2023, 06:28
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In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will increase from five Kirlandic dollars (KD5.00) per hour to KD5.50 per hour. Opponents of this increase have argued that the resulting rise in wages will drive the inflation rate up. In fact its impact on wages will probably be negligible, since only a very small proportion of all Kirlandic workers are currently receiving less than KD5.50 per hour.

Conclusion - The impact on the wages will be negligible (we are not talking about the impact on inflation - they are interrelated but the conclusion is specifically about the impact on WAGES and not on inflation)

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?


(A) Most people in Kirlandia who are currently earning the minimum wage have been employed at their current jobs for less than a year - less than a year or more than a year, doesn't matter. Out of scope

(B) Some firms in Kirlandia have paid workers considerably less than KD5.00 per hour, in violation of Kirlandic employment regulations. - Some can be at least 2 of the already very small population. At best, it is a distortion or half-truth. First, we don't know who didn't follow the rules earlier will follow now, and secondly, even if they follow the segment is very small, the conclusion still stays intact.

(C) Many businesses hire trainees at or near the minimum wage but must reward trained workers by keeping their pay levels above the pay level of trainees. - This weakens. In a Weaken question, expect a piece of outside information. We are told about trainees (a group that wasn't mentioned in the argument - but this is actually ok as we expect a new piece of information in a weaken question, information that falls within the scope of the argument), if intern salary goes to 5.5 then for a large percentage of people the wages further needs to increase from 5.5, leading to huge impact on the WAGES.

(D) The greatest growth in Kirlandia's economy in recent years has been in those sectors where workers earn wages that tend to be much higher than the minimum wage. - This option talks about the people who earn much higher than the minimum wage - the scope is concerned about the minimum wage - at best this is out of scope

(E) The current minimum wage is insufficient for a worker holding only one job to earn enough to support a family, even when working full time at that job. - out of scope, which is limited to the impact of the increase of minimum wage on wages.
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In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will 14 Nov 2025, 09:18
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