Programmer: We computer programmers at Mytheco are demanding raises to make our average salary comparable with that ...

tomgbean on November 6, 2019

Although I was able to get this question right upon review (before looking at the correct answer), I too am curious about why B is the correct answer.

#JW on November 12, 2019

Why is C eliminated?

shunhe on December 31, 2019

Hi all,

What are the programmers asking for here? A higher pay, in order to bring their average salary in line with the salary of the technical writers, since the pay difference is unfair between the two groups (allegedly). How does the CEO respond? The CEO says that because the reason many of the technical writers are being paid more is their seniority, and tying salaries to seniority is ok. But that raises the question: how many is "many," and how much more senior are those many? If only 20 out of 100 technical writers are more senior by a year, but the technical writers on average are being paid 20% more, it still seems unfair. In other words, it seems like we need a way to somehow compare their average seniority because we're comparing their average salaries in the stimulus, and this is what (B) gives us.

(C) is incorrect because it doesn't matter if benefits and salary are linked together, since both are linked to seniority independently, meaning that they are at least correlation. Their exact relation to each other doesn't help answer the question.

(A) is incorrect because whether the answer to this question is "yes" or "no," it still doesn't help us determine if a there is a difference in the average seniority of the two groups.

(D) is incorrect because the executive's background is irrelevant to her response, which is that technical writers are paid more because they work longer. To evaluate people that claim based on the facts, we need to look at the seniority of the two groups.

(E) is completely irrelevant to determining if the executive's response concerning the salary of the two groups is adequate or not. Hope this helps!