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100 points for $49 worth of Veritas practice GMATs FREE VERITAS PRACTICE GMAT EXAMS Earn 10 Points Per Post Earn 10 Points Per Thanks Earn 10 Points Per Upvote ## Last year the range of the annual salaries of the 100 employ ##### This topic has expert replies Moderator Posts: 3963 Joined: 07 Sep 2017 Followed by:8 members ### Last year the range of the annual salaries of the 100 employ by BTGmoderatorDC » Fri May 03, 2019 4:37 pm ## Timer 00:00 ## Your Answer A B C D E ## Global Stats Difficult Last year the range of the annual salaries of the 100 employees at Company X was$30,000. If the annual salary of each of the 100 employees this year is 10 percent greater than it was last year, what is the range of the annual salaries of the 100 employees this year?

(A) $27,000 (B)$30,000
(C) $33,000 (D)$36,000
(E) $63,000 OA C Source: GMAT Prep ### GMAT/MBA Expert GMAT Instructor Posts: 13525 Joined: 08 Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver, BC Thanked: 5254 times Followed by:1256 members GMAT Score:770 by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat May 04, 2019 6:37 am BTGmoderatorDC wrote:Last year the range of the annual salaries of the 100 employees at Company X was$30,000. If the annual salary of each of the 100 employees this year is 10 percent greater than it was last year, what is the range of the annual salaries of the 100 employees this year?

(A) $27,000 (B)$30,000
(C) $33,000 (D)$36,000
(E) $63,000 OA C Source: GMAT Prep Hey BTGmoderatorDC, You posted this question 2 months ago: https://www.beatthegmat.com/last-year-t ... 06593.html Cheers, Brent Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com Use my video course along with Beat The GMAT's free 60-Day Study Guide Sign up for free Question of the Day emails And check out all of these free resources ### GMAT/MBA Expert GMAT Instructor Posts: 13525 Joined: 08 Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver, BC Thanked: 5254 times Followed by:1256 members GMAT Score:770 by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat May 04, 2019 6:37 am BTGmoderatorDC wrote:Last year the range of the annual salaries of the 100 employees at Company X was$30,000. If the annual salary of each of the 100 employees this year is 10 percent greater than it was last year, what is the range of the annual salaries of the 100 employees this year?

(A) $27,000 (B)$30,000
(C) $33,000 (D)$36,000
(E) $63,000 OA C Source: GMAT Prep A quick solution is to assign some values to the highest paid and lowest paid workers Let$10,000 = the lowest salary LAST YEAR
Let $40,000 = the highest salary LAST YEAR This satisfies the condition that the range LAST YEAR =$30,000

If the annual salary of each of the 100 employees this year is 10 percent greater than it was last year, . . .
(1.1)($10,000) =$11,000, so the lowest salary is NOW $11,000 (1.1)($40,000) =$44,000, so the lowest salary is NOW$44,000

. . . what is the range of the annual salaries of the 100 employees this year?
Range = $44,000 -$11,000 = $33,000 Answer: C A faster solution is to recognize that if EACH PERSON gets a 10% increase, then the range will increase by 10% So, the$30,000 range increases by 10% to $33,000 Cheers, Brent Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com Use my video course along with Beat The GMAT's free 60-Day Study Guide Sign up for free Question of the Day emails And check out all of these free resources ### GMAT/MBA Expert GMAT Instructor Posts: 3997 Joined: 25 Apr 2015 Location: Los Angeles, CA Thanked: 43 times Followed by:20 members by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Mon May 20, 2019 6:03 pm BTGmoderatorDC wrote:Last year the range of the annual salaries of the 100 employees at Company X was$30,000. If the annual salary of each of the 100 employees this year is 10 percent greater than it was last year, what is the range of the annual salaries of the 100 employees this year?

(A) $27,000 (B)$30,000
(C) $33,000 (D)$36,000
(E) $63,000 OA C Source: GMAT Prep We can let the lowest salary from last year = 10,000 and the highest = 40,000. (Note that we could use any two values, as long as their difference is$30,000.)

Thus, the new low salary is 1.1 x 10,000 = 11,000 and the new high salary is 40,000 x 1.1 = 44,000.

So the new range is 44,000 - 11,000 = 33,000.

Alternate Solution:

We can let x = the lowest salary last year and thus x + 30,000 = the highest salary last year. Since each of the employees' salaries increased by 10% this year from last year, the lowest salary this year is 1.1x and the highest salary this year is 1.1(x + 30,000) = 1.1x + 33,000. Therefore, the range of salaries this year is:

1.1x + 33,000 - 1.1x = 33,000.

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder and CEO
scott@targettestprep.com

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