Taxi drivers, whose income is based on the fares they receive, usually

Question

Taxi drivers, whose income is based on the fares they receive, usually decide when to finish work each day by setting a daily income target; they stop when they reach that target. This means that they typically work fewer hours on a busy day than on a slow day.

The facts described above provide the strongest evidence against which one of the following?

(A) The number of hours per day that a person is willing to work depends on that person’s financial needs.
(B) People work longer when their effective hourly wage is high than when it is low. 
(C) Workers will accept a lower hourly wage in exchange for the freedom to set their own schedules.
(D) People are willing to work many hours a day in order to avoid a reduction in their standard of living.
(E) People who are paid based on their production work more efficiently than those who are paid a fixed hourly wage.

bidskamikaze · Accepted Answer

Taxi drivers, whose income is based on the fares they receive, usually decide when to finish work each day by setting a daily income target; they stop when they reach that target. This means that they typically work fewer hours on a busy day than on a slow day.

The facts described above provide the strongest evidence against which one of the following?

(A) The number of hours per day that a person is willing to work depends on that person’s financial needs.
 - Still this doesn't go against the conclusion that taxi drivers work less on busy days. Eliminate.

(B) People work longer when their effective hourly wage is high than when it is low.
 - Correct. This option tells us that the more a person earns per hour, the more he/ she earns. This option goes against the conclusion.

(C) Workers will accept a lower hourly wage in exchange for the freedom to set their own schedules.
 - Doesn't go against the conclusion. Eliminate.

(D) People are willing to work many hours a day in order to avoid a reduction in their standard of living.
 - Irrelevant.

(E) People who are paid based on their production work more efficiently than those who are paid a fixed hourly wage.
 - Irrelevant.

Answer B.

VirFortis · Answer

GMATNinja 
Can you please help me understand what should be the process of thinking in this type of question?

Thanks

MBAB123 · Answer

L0S3R , I could definitely be wrong here, but I've never seen a GMAT question that is framed in this manner. Perhaps, an expert can verify this. That said, I was able to get to the right answer pretty quickly on this one and I'll be happy to help you with any of the options (if needed) whilst you wait for GMATninja's reply.

VirFortis · Answer

Hi  Brian123

Thanks, I was more curious about how to think in these questions.

Let me tell you my thought process - 
1. Conclusion - Taxi drivers work only the amount of hours required to reach their financial goal for the day.
2. Ideas behind the conclusion - daily income only by fare; busy day - more rides - reach daily income target early - stop working.

Now, to the question stem -> here I made a mistake - I didn't register clearly that "strongest evidence AGAINST" means weakening one of the options.

Options ->
(A) The number of hours per day that a person is willing to work depends on that person’s financial needs.
 -> a person's will is dependent on financial needs - related to "meeting income target - long/short hours - busy/slow days resp". So, it is supported by the passage. 
(B) People work longer when their effective hourly wage is high than when it is low.
 -> higher hourly wage means people will work longer hours. In the passage - stop working, when the income target is reached so there is no motivation to earn more, so is NOT supported by the passage. 
(C) Workers will accept a lower hourly wage in exchange for the freedom to set their own schedules.
 -> Freedom of schedule higher priority to earning more -> Schedules(in the name) are not discussed, but the passage states people will want to meet their financial targets and will work long hours (on slow days) if required. Hence, NOT supported. 
(D) People are willing to work many hours a day in order to avoid a reduction in their standard of living.
 -> Standard of Living has not been discussed or alluded to in the passage - what constitutes a "standard of living"? 
(E) People who are paid based on their production work more efficiently than those who are paid a fixed hourly wage.
 -> Efficiency related to pay dependent on production Vs hourly work -> The passage doesn't provide any information related to this distinction.

I spent over 2mins 45sec with this analysis and panicked. Re-read the question stem, realized that a conclusion that can be weakened is required and selected C. Though, now that I think of it, B is a much better answer. But, again, with the benefit of hindsight, it's easy to reason it out.

So, my basic questions are -
1. How to improve my thinking and make it faster?
2. Am I missing something in the way I was reasoning about the options or there is some gap?

Thanks.

sssanskaar · Answer

I'll give my 2 cents here. Definitely, this is a differently worded question and the faster trick to solve this question was to understand that this question is asking for a weakener. 
Once you have identified that, you can see that option B pretty much runs exactly opposite of the last line of the argument.

Dooperman · Answer

Conclusion: Slow day = More hours to work (i.e. less pay per hour)

Only B weakens.
B says opposite.

vasu1104 · Answer

taxi drives income based on their fares.
they set daily income target and work numbers of hours accordingly.
on busy days, they work fewer hours than on slow day.

passage is pretty straightforward but the question is tricky. basically they are asking what is opposite to this or which option weakens the facts given in passage.

A thats the premise of passage. reject.
B so this is on the other side of whats been mentioned. if they work longer when wage is higher then it breaks the facts given in passage. keep it.
C this talks about choosing freedom in exchange of low wage. that means less work and less pay. this doesnt weaken it. reject.
D this is irrelevant. 
E wrong comparison and out of scope.

Taxi drivers, whose income is based on the fares they receive, usually

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Taxi drivers, whose income is based on the fares they receive, usually

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