State X requires employers to pay hourly-wage employees 50 percent

A) This js a good choice. Assuming a standard 8 hour working day, if employees work at least 5 days a week, that implies that some employees work 6 and 7 days. In that case, it might be plausible to assume that in State X, employees working 6-7 days a week for 8 hours earn no overtime as they never exceed the 8 hour per day. However, those same employees in State Y would be earning overtime for each extra day worked, earning much more in comparasion. This is a good choice, however we have made many assumptions. Let's see if there are better choices.

B) There is nothing in the passage that would allow the inference of the fact that state Y does not offer overtime work. If anything, we can infer that it does.

C) Once again, it is not possible for us to infer on which state offers overtime work or not - this cannot be the option.

D) This would not allow us to prefer one state over the other. There is no information on the quantity of overtime work provided by the workers - it could be 0, 10, etc. There is also no information about how this work is distributed in the arc of a day.

E) At best, we would infer that workers will prefer state X - if it is tbe case that workers work less than 40hrs total per week, then it is not possible for them to ever be paid overtime in State Y. It is possible, however, that they work a few days of 8+ hours and earn the overtime in State X. This statement is incompatible with the information in the stem - we know that State Y is preferred. E is incorrect.

A is the last man standing, and the correct choice.

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