Hourly Wage

Expert replies

ashish2104: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 191; Joined: Sat Jun 26, 2010 9:27 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 6 times

by ashish2104 » Thu Aug 12, 2010 4:37 am

A certain company's customer service department has five employees. The hourly wage for each employee ranges from $5 an hour to $20 an hour. Which of the following could be the average (arithmetic mean) hourly wage for the customer service employees?
1) $7.50 an hour
2) $9 an hour
3) $16.75 an hour

A. 1 only
B. 2 only
C. 3 only
D. 1 and 2 only
E. 2 and 3 only

[spoiler]OA: E While considering min and max avg can we consider all values as either 5 or 20 respectively?[/spoiler]

Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Thu Aug 12, 2010 4:37 am

kmittal82: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 324; Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2010 6:44 amFollowed by: 3 members; Location: London; Thanked: 70 times

by kmittal82 » Thu Aug 12, 2010 5:04 am

In my opinion all 3 options are correct.

The OA says $7.50 cannot be the the answer, but what if all employees earn $7.50 each, in which case it satisfies the criteria of the wage of each employee being between $5 and $20

ashish2104: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 191; Joined: Sat Jun 26, 2010 9:27 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 6 times

by ashish2104 » Thu Aug 12, 2010 5:21 am

Even i thought all 3 options are correct.

If you consider the minimum average of all 5 people to be 5, then all 3 options satisy. [5+5+5+5+5]/5=5
If you consider, one person to have max hourly wage and rest min, then OA is satisfied. [20+5+5+5+5]/5=8
My doubt here was this exact point.

Can somebody clarify?

CompBanker: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 7; Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:48 am; Thanked: 1 times; GMAT Score:760

by CompBanker » Fri Aug 13, 2010 4:10 pm

ashish2104 wrote:Even i thought all 3 options are correct.

If you consider the minimum average of all 5 people to be 5, then all 3 options satisy. [5+5+5+5+5]/5=5
If you consider, one person to have max hourly wage and rest min, then OA is satisfied. [20+5+5+5+5]/5=8
My doubt here was this exact point.

Can somebody clarify?

The question states that hour wage ranges from $5 an hour to $20 an hour. It does not state that the wages are between the ranges of $5 an hour to $20 an hour. Hence, one employee must be earning $20/hr and another must be earning $5/hr.

Assuming the remaining three are earning at least $5/hr, the minimum average earnings will be $8/hr. Hence, $7.50 does not satisfy the parameters.

CompBanker

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