M7MBA wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 10, 2021 10:42 am

An employee is paid 1.5 times the regular hourly rate for each hour worked in excess of 40 hours per week, excluding Sunday, and 2 times the regular hourly rate for each hour worked on Sunday. How much was the employee paid last week?

(1) The employee's regular hourly rate is $10.
(2) Last week the employee worked a total of 54 hours but did not work more than 8 hours on any day.

Answer: E

Source: Official Guide

Given: An employee is paid 1.5 times the regular hourly rate for each hour worked in excess of 40 hours per week, excluding Sunday, and 2 times the regular hourly rate for each hour worked on Sunday.

Target question: How much was the employee paid last week?

Statement 1: The employee's regular hourly rate is $10.
This statement is not sufficient. We still need to know the total number of hours worked from Monday to Saturday, AND we need to know the number of hours worked on Sunday.
Statement 1 is NOT SUFFICIENT

Statement 2: Last week the employee worked a total of 54 hours but did not work more than 8 hours on any day
Since we don't know the employee's hourly rate, there's no way to determine how much the employee was paid last week
Since we cannot answer the target question with certainty, statement 2 is NOT SUFFICIENT

Statements 1 and 2 combined
The two statements COMBINED still do not provide enough information to answer the target question.
Here are two possible cases that satisfy BOTH statements:

Case a: The employee worked 8 hours each day from Monday to Saturday, for a total of 48 hours (to earn $520), AND the employee worked 6 hours on Sunday (to earn $120). In this case, the answer to the target question is the amount the employee was paid last week = $520 + $120 = $640
Case b: The employee worked a total of 46 hours from Monday to Saturday (8+8+8+8+8+6=46), to earn $490, AND the employee worked 8 hours on Sunday (to earn $160). In this case, the answer to the target question is the amount the employee was paid last week = $490 + $160 = $650
Since we cannot answer the target question with certainty, the combined statements are NOT SUFFICIENT

Answer: E

Cheers,
Brent