M23-23

Question

If 25% of a company's employees are women older than 30, what percent of the men employees are 30 or younger?

(1) Half of the women employees are 30 or younger.
 
(2) 35% of the company's employees are men of 30 or younger.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Solution:

If 25% of a company's employees are women older than 30, what percent of the men employees are 30 or younger? 
 
Let's assume that there are a total of 100 employees in the company. Thus, there are 25 women who are older than 30.
 
(1) Half of the women employees are 30 or younger. 
 
 Hence, the remaining half of women employees are older than 30. Therefore, 25 women which are older than 30, account for half of the women employees, which means that there are  2*25=50  women employees and  100-50=50  men employees. But we still don't know how many from these 50 men are 30 or younger. Not sufficient.
 
(2) 35% of the company's employees are men of 30 or younger. 
 
Hence, there 35 men who are 30 or younger. We still don't know the total number of men employees. Not sufficient.
 
(1)+(2) From (1) we have that there are total of 50 men employees and from (2) we have that 35 men are 30 or younger. Therefore,  \frac{35}{50}*100=70 \%  of the men employees are 30 or younger. Sufficient.

Answer: C

thaihoang305_gmat · Answer

This question is low quality." what percent of the men employees are 30 or younger" it mean that total men 30 or younger/ total employees or total men 30 or younger / total men. Not quite clear IMO.

Bunuel · Answer

Mathematically and logically "what percent of the men employees are 30 or younger?" can only mean (the number of men who are 30 or younger)/(the total number of men).

kishor1 · Answer

This is a high quality question.

Posted from my mobile device

totochan124 · Answer

Hi Bunnel,

As you explained ''Mathematically and logically "what percent of the men employees are 30 or younger?" can only mean (the number of men who are 30 or younger)/(the total number of men).''

However in the Answer you assume ''Say there are total of 100 employees. So, we have that 25 women are older than 30.'' to respond the the Question info ''If 25% of a company's employees are women older than 30'' . So 25% out of 100 = 25 Female older than 30. Why can't the wording in statement (2) means that 35% of the company's employees are men younger than 30.

--> So how to avoid wording trap like this? Shall we say when the info is given ''the company's emp

Thanks

pzone123 · Answer

Hi totochan124, I can reply to your question -- we can say that 35% of the company's male employees are under 30. But the question is asking what percent of MALE employees are under 30, not what percent of COMPANY employees are males under 30. To answer what the question is asking, we need to know the percent of males in the company so we can get (35% of company males under 30)/(% of male employees in company) = X% of male employees are under 30. With (1) we learn that 50% of employees are male, so (35% of company males under 30)/50(% of male employees in company)=70% of male employees are under 30.

joe123x · Answer

The trick here is to realize from the first statement that the total percentage of women represents 50% of the total employees and 50% are men.
we still need the second statement to have 35/50 = 70%

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M23-23

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