Many economists claim that financial rewards provide the strongest incentive for people to choose one job over anothe...

on November 4, 2020

I would also like to know why it isn't B.

Victoria on November 11, 2020

Hi @lsatstudier1,

Happy to help!

To start, it is important to note that the stimulus talks about different types of financial rewards.

The stimulus concludes that the economists who claim that financial rewards are the strongest incentive for people when choosing a job overestimate the degree to which people are motivated by money in this choice.

Why? Because in many surveys, most people do not name high salary as the most desirable feature of a job.

Notice that the economists talk about general financial rewards, the survey talks about high salary, and the conclusion talks about money in general.

Salary is not the only financial reward which accompanies a job. Maybe the company reimburses for mileage. Maybe the benefits are really good.

This consideration is represented by answer choice (C). This answer choice suggests that, while salary may not be the most desirable feature of a job, people may still be highly motivated by other financial benefits (i.e. money) when selecting a job.

Answer choice (B) fails to account for these other financial benefits because the only difference between the two positions is salary. Of course most people would pick the higher paying job if literally everything else about the position was exactly the same as the lower paying job.

However, in the real world, the financial benefits of a position (i.e. money) are not solely represented by salary. This is represented by answer choice (C) which is our correct answer.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.

DesHarp on May 23 at 10:38PM

@Victoria I do not understand how this weakens the argument though.

Emil-Kunkin on May 24 at 12:49PM

The author is trying to prove that economists overestimate the importance of compensation in choosing a job. To support this, they cite a survey showing that salary is not always the top concern.

However salary is not the same thing as total compensation. If two jobs both pay 75, but one offers no benefits, and the other offers complete health coverage, 10% 401k match, and equity, someone motivated by money is going to choose the job that clearly pays more even if the salary alone is equal.

This is what C gets at. The author has confused salary with total comp.