In Kravonia, the average salary for jobs requiring a college

Question

In Kravonia, the average salary for jobs requiring a college degree has always been higher than the average salary for jobs that do not require a degree. Current enrollments in Kravonia's colleges indicate that over the next four years the percentage of the Kravonian workforce with college degrees will increase dramatically. Therefore, the average salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A. Kravonians with more than one college degree earn more, on average, than do Kravonians with only one college degree.

B. The percentage of Kravonians who attend college in order to earn higher salaries is higher now than it was several years ago.

C. The higher average salary for jobs requiring a college degree is not due largely to a scarcity among the Kravonian workforce of people with a college degree.

D. The average salary in Kravonia for jobs that do not require a college degree will not increase over the next four years.

E. Few members of the Kravonian workforce earned their degrees in other countries.

Similar question from GMATPrep:  LINK

KarishmaB · Accepted Answer

Avg salary for jobs needing college degree is higher than avg salary for jobs not needing college degree
Over the next four years, the percentage of the Kravonian workforce with college degrees will increase dramatically. 
Conclusion: Avg salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years.

A few assumptions:
- Number of job opening that need college degrees will increase in the next 4 years. What if people graduate but there are no extra high paying jobs.
- Jobs needing college degree will continue to pay more. What if once scarcity is gone, higher salary also goes away?

A. Kravonians with more than one college degree earn more, on average, than do Kravonians with only one college degree. 
Multiple college degree vs one is not a point of contention.

B. The percentage of Kravonians who attend college in order to earn higher salaries is higher now than it was several years ago. 
Given in the argument - current enrolments are higher

C. The higher average salary for jobs requiring a college degree is not due largely to a scarcity among the Kravonian workforce of people with a college degree. 
This is our second assumption we discussed above. Hence is the answer. 
 rish2708  - We don't have to assume that the avg salary will decrease. We are just saying that our assumption to arrive at the conclusion that avg salary will increase is that those jobs will continue to pay extra and hence more such jobs will lead to higher avg salary.

D. The average salary in Kravonia for jobs that do not require a college degree will not increase over the next four years. 
We are not assuming that other jobs will not start paying more. If they do, it actually helps our conclusion.

E. Few members of the Kravonian workforce earned their degrees in other countries.
The place from where they earned degrees is irrelevant.

Answer (C)

rthothad · Answer

I will go with 'C'

A. Kravonians with more than one college degree earn more, on average, than do Kravonians with only one college degree. 
Too extreme to be assumed from the given passage.

B. The percentage of Kravonians who attend college in order to earn higher salaries is higher now than it was several years ago. 
This cannot be assumed becos the passage does not mention anything about the intent of the college students.

C. The higher average salary for jobs requiring a college degree is not due largely to a scarcity among the Kravonian workforce of people with 
a college degree. 
This should be it. If this is not assumed then the large supply of college graduates will bring the demand/salaries down and therefore will not increase average salary for all workers.

D. The average salary in Kravonia for jobs that do not require a college degree will not increase over the next four years. 
This cannot be assumed, because even if this is not true the average salary for all workers will increase.

E. Few members of the Kravonian workforce earned their degrees in other countries
Cannot be deduced from the passage.

chunjuwu · Answer

C for me. 

Fact 1: the average salary for jobs requiring a college degree > average salary for jobs that do not require a degree. 

Fact 2: over the next four years the percentage of the Kravonian workforce with college degrees will increase dramatically. 

Conclustion: the average salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years. 

B. The percentage of Kravonians who attend college in order to earn higher salaries is higher now than it was several years ago. 

 I think this has been talked as the fact 2. it cannot be assumption.  

C. The higher average salary for jobs requiring a college degree is not due largely to a scarcity among the Kravonian workforce of people with a college degree. 

 this is best. if the demand decreases, then the average salary for jobs that require a college degree will not increase. The conclusion will be refuted.  

D. The average salary in Kravonia for jobs that do not require a college degree will not increase over the next four years. 

 even if the average salary for jobs that do not require a college degree will increase, the average salary for all workers in Kravonia will still increase over the next four years.

dimitri92 · Answer

there are two types of assumptions: supporter and defender.

supporter:  directly strengthens the conclusion.
 All men like baseball games. Therefore, Jack likes baseball too. 
supporter assumption:  Jack is a man.

defender:  protects the arguments by eliminating ideas that weaken the conclusion.
 Jack is a lawyer and he is smart. Thus, studying law made Jack smart. 
defender assumption:  Jack was not smart before studying law

Conclusion:  the average salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years 
Possible reason of high pay: may be there are more jobs and less people who meet the requirement i.e. having a college degree.

C is also a defender assumption and is the right answer

another way to check assumption questions is to logically negate the answer and see if it weakens the conclusion.

Logical negative of C:  the higher average salary for jobs requiring a college degree is due largely to a scarcity among the Kravonian workforce of people with a college degree.

the logical negative definitely weakens the conclusion and is the right answer

shekyonline · Answer

In Kravonia, the average salary for jobs requiring a college degree has always been higher than the average salary for jobs that do not require a degree. Current enrollments in Kravonia’s colleges indicate that over the next four years the percentage of the Kravonian workforce with college degrees will increase dramatically. Therefore, the average salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A. Kravonians with more than one college degree earn more, on average, than do Kravonians with only one college degree.

B. The percentage of Kravonians who attend college in order to earn higher salaries is higher now than it was several years ago.

C. The higher average salary for jobs requiring a college degree is not due largely to a scarcity among the Kravonian workforce of people with a college degree.

D. The average salary in Kravonia for jobs that do not require a college degree will not increase over the next four years.

E. Few members of the Kravonian workforce earned their degrees in other countries.

The higher average salary for jobs requiring a college degree is not due largely to a scarcity among the Kravonian workforce of people with a college degree.->

Negate it.
Suppose higher average salary is due to scarcity of students with college degree.

Now, as there will be more students with college degree and students with college degree will be  easily available  (  no scarcity ).
Then, the below  will not  hold true
 "Therefore, the average salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years."

It weakens.

arvind910619 · Answer

A very good question

The answer is C

The argument is taking a big leap to predict that the people with college degrees will earn more and there will be more people with college degree .
There can be many reasons for the higher salary for people with college degrees.
C tells us that the higher salary is not due to the scarcity of jobs that require college degree.
If it is not true than the conclusion will as there will more people with college degree who can now perform the job so the salary will indeed decrease .

So C is the necessary assumption .

Squib17 · Answer

Got this one correct, but took some time to do it

In Kravonia, the average salary for jobs requiring a college degree has always been higher than the average salary for jobs that do not require a degree. Current enrollments in Kravonia’s colleges indicate that over the next four years the percentage of the Kravonian workforce with college degrees will increase dramatically. Therefore, the average salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A. Kravonians with more than one college degree earn more, on average, than do Kravonians with only one college degree.

B. The percentage of Kravonians who attend college in order to earn higher salaries is higher now than it was several years ago.

C. The higher average salary for jobs requiring a college degree is not due largely to a scarcity among the Kravonian workforce of people with a college degree.

D. The average salary in Kravonia for jobs that do not require a college degree will not increase over the next four years.

E. Few members of the Kravonian workforce earned their degrees in other countries.

The higher average salary for jobs requiring a college degree is not due largely to a scarcity among the Kravonian workforce of people with a college degree.->

Negate it.
Suppose higher average salary is due to scarcity of students with college degree.

Now, as there will be more students with college degree and students with college degree will be easily available ( no scarcity).
Then, the below will not hold true
"Therefore, the average salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years."

It weakens.

. But this is the correct one. Negating this sentence would mean that higher salary is because of scarce workforce and if that is the case, then with the increase in the number of people with college degree, the average would go down. This shatters the argument. Hence this has to be the ASSUMPTION. ] D. The average salary in Kravonia for jobs that do not require a college degree will not increase over the next four years. It could remain constant but that does not impact the conclusion. ] E. Few members of the Kravonian workforce earned their degrees in other countries. Out of Scope - who cares where they got their degree from? ]

dcummins · Answer

The argument is that the average salary for ALL workers will INCREASE over the next 4 years.
This is because the average salary for jobs requiring a college degree has been increasing. AND
Current enrollments of college students indicates a higher percentage of the workforce will have college degrees soon.

What does the argumentator assume?

Strictly C and D

C is correct. This must be true because if the higher average salary for college degree type jobs decreases as more supply of the workforce have college degrees then the average cost of labour will go down. C points denies the possibility of this happening, thus allowing the author's argument to be held true.

D even if the average salary for jobs that do not require a degree does NOT increase this doesn't affect the salary of the higher paying jobs, which are typically college degree jobs. If the salary does increase, we already know that these jobs aren't as high paying as college degree jobs, so the average won't be impacted as much.

jabhatta2 · Answer

Hi  VeritasKarishma  - I understand why C is right but I am struggling to eliminate D specifically.

The argument is 
i) People with college degrees get paid more on average. 
ii) More people in the work force are getting college degrees

Hence

Average salaries of ALL WORKERS are going up

(D) if negated seems to weaken this argument.

Negated D says, folks w/o college degrees are also having their salaries increase as well.

Thus, If folks w/o college degrees are also having their salaries increased, then perhaps there is another reason why Average salaries of ALL folks are going up (not just because of people getting more college degrees)

Introducing another 3rd reason as to why A causes B is an example of a weakener.

Please let me know where is the break in my logic

Thank you for EVERYTHING !

KarishmaB · Answer

Negation needs to break the conclusion.

Negated (D): folks w/o college degrees are also having their salaries increase as well.

Conclusion: Avg salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years.

Negated (D) helps our conclusion, not break it.

achanak · Answer

I made a similar mistake with D
In the next 4 years:
If the avg. salary of non-degree Kravonian workers stays the same / does not increase, but the degree holders' avg. salary increases, then its mathematically correct to say the average salary of all Kravonians would still increase. And while its a fact, it is not what the question asks for, which is; what does the assumption (all salaries increasing)  depend  on? The average salary of all Kravonian workers increasing does NOT depend on the salaries of non-degree holders staying the same / not increasing.

Raman109 · Answer

Understanding the argument - 
In Kravonia, the average salary for jobs requiring a college degree has always been higher than the average salary for jobs that do not require a degree. Fact
Current enrollments in Kravonia's colleges indicate that over the next four years the percentage of the Kravonian workforce with college degrees will increase dramatically. Fact/Opinion 
Therefore, the average salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years. - Conclusion.

We need to find the minimum condition or the missing premise or the assumption for the conclusion to hold true, which is "the average salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years."

What if the moment we have more college graduates, their number increases more than the demand, and thus salaries reduce instead of increase? So we need to safeguard the argument against this possible weakener.

Option Elimination -

A. Kravonians with more than one college degree earn more, on average, than do Kravonians with only one college degree. - We are not concerned about "Kravonians with more than one college degree." Out of scope.

B. The percentage of Kravonians who attend college in order to earn higher salaries is higher now than it was several years ago. - how does it even relate to the scope of the argument, which is "the average salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years." Out of scope.

C. The higher average salary for jobs requiring a college degree is not due largely to a scarcity among the Kravonian workforce of people with a college degree. - ok. Had it been due to scarcity, then the moment we have more college graduates, the salaries would not increase, and the conclusion would fall flat.

D. The average salary in Kravonia for jobs that do not require a college degree will not increase over the next four years. - If it doesn't increase, it doesn't mean it reduces. It can just stay the same as well. In that case, how does it impact "the average salary for all workers in Kravonia is likely to increase over the next four years"? No impact. Distortion.

E. Few members of the Kravonian workforce earned their degrees in other countries. - out of scope.

DonBosco7 · Answer

Another simple way to look at this problem is from the view of  "supply"  and  "demand"

-> current situation is that  demand  is  high  and  supply  is  low . Hence they are getting paid higher salaries.
-> but if supply matches or even exceeds demand (as is being said that number of people with college degrees will increase dramatically), then there won't be any increase in salaries, rather it could even be possible that salaries will go down.

Option C  states this perfectly - that currently there is scarcity of people with degrees and hence they are getting paid higher salary for those jobs requiring degrees, but once that scarcity goes away and more and more number of people emerge with college degrees, the salaries wont increase.

In Kravonia, the average salary for jobs requiring a college

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

In Kravonia, the average salary for jobs requiring a college

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia