LSAT 111 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q4

LR Question 4 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: For next year, the Chefs’ Union has requested a 10 percent salary…

QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen

CONCLUSION: The average dollar amount of the chefs’ union’s requested raise is higher than the average dollar amount of the hotel managers’ union’s requested wage.

REASONING: The percentage of the chef’s requested wage is higher than the percentage of the hotel manager’s wage.

ANALYSIS: I think every logical reasoning section has a question on the difference between percentage and amount. A higher percentage can still be a lower amount. I’ll use an example:

Would you rather have 0.1% of Bill Gates’ money or 99% of a minimum wage worker’s money?

If the hotel managers have a higher salary than the chefs then 8% of their salary could be higher than 10% of the chefs’ salary. We could strengthen the argument by showing that the salaries are equal.

___________

1. This is irrelevant since we’re discussing the average salary per member. 
2. Good for the chefs. But the conclusion is about the dollar amount of the requests. It didn’t claim that the chefs would actually succeed in getting a raise. 
3. CORRECT. A higher percentage of a higher salary leads to a larger amount of dollars. 
4. Last year is irrelevant since we don’t know what their average salaries were. We need to know what their total salaries are this year.
5. This doesn’t help because it doesn’t tell us whether the chefs earn more or the hotel managers still earn more.