gmat_guy666 wrote:Company Y employs c women and d men. Do the women at Company Y earn an average (arithmetic mean) annual salary greater than $25,000?
(1) Company Y pays its employees a total of $30,000(c + d) in salaries annually.
(2) The men at Company Y earn an average (arithmetic mean) annual salary of $34,000.
An alternate way to combine the two statements is to TEST THE THRESHOLD.
Here, the threshold is an average salary of $25,000 for the women.
To test the threshold, we can use ALLIGATION.
For a description of alligation, check my post here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mean-t266852.html
Case 1: Average salary for the women = 25,000
Using alligation to determine the ratio of women to men, we get:
W 25,000-----5,000-----30,000-----4,000-----34,000 M
W/M = 4000/5000 = 4/5.
Thus, if there are 4 women for every 5 men, the average salary for the women will be exactly $25,000.
Case 2: Average salary for the women = 29,000
Using alligation to determine the ratio of women to men, we get:
W 29,000-----1,000-----30,000-----4,000-----34,000 M
W/M = 4000/1000 = 4/1.
Thus, if there are 4 women for every 1 man, the average salary for the women will be $29,000.
Since the average salary for the women is EQUAL to $25,000 in Case 1 but GREATER than $25,000 in Case 2, the two statements combined are INSUFFICIENT.
The correct answer is
E.
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