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HELP....Don't understand this concept...PT 2!

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HELP....Don't understand this concept...PT 2!

by smclean23 » Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:41 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 is E, both statements together are not sufficient.

*I thought the answer was C. Since the employee worked a total of 54 hours but did not work more than 8 hours on any day, (Monday thru Saturday she could work 8 days per, giving her 48 hours of work then 6 hours on Sunday).

Is it that the question doesn't say the employee can or can't work Saturdays which makes my logic wrong?

PLEASE HELP.
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Re: HELP....Don't understand this concept...PT 2!

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Fri Jul 04, 2008 11:13 am
smclean23 wrote: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 is E, both statements together are not sufficient.

*I thought the answer was C. Since the employee worked a total of 54 hours but did not work more than 8 hours on any day, (Monday thru Saturday she could work 8 days per, giving her 48 hours of work then 6 hours on Sunday).

Is it that the question doesn't say the employee can or can't work Saturdays which makes my logic wrong?

PLEASE HELP.
Your problem is one tiny little word, a word that has caused many test takers much grief over time.
I thought the answer was C. Since the employee worked a total of 54 hours but did not work more than 8 hours on any day, (Monday thru Saturday she could work 8 days per, giving her 48 hours of work then 6 hours on Sunday).
You're 100% correct - the employee COULD work 8 hours on the other days of the week. Using those numbers, we can come up with AN answer to the question.

However, the employee COULD also work 8 hours on Sunday and 46 hours on the other days of the week, giving us a different answer to the question.

Since we can arrive at more than 1 answer, we don't have enough information: choose (E).
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by Waqas_Jameel » Tue Sep 17, 2013 6:05 am
Guys, please explain ....

How many days does the week have ? 5 or 6 ?

Now, going by 2nd statement, he cannot work > 8 hours per day.

So it cannot be 6 days working. You cannot divide 40/8. It has to be necessarily 5 days working.
If this is true, then :

5 days work - 8*5 = 40 hrs
Saturday - 8 = 48 hrs (cumulative addition )
Sunday - 6 hrs = 54 ( Cumulative addition )

Where am I wrong here ?? Please elaborate .

smclean23 wrote: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 is E, both statements together are not sufficient.

*I thought the answer was C. Since the employee worked a total of 54 hours but did not work more than 8 hours on any day, (Monday thru Saturday she could work 8 days per, giving her 48 hours of work then 6 hours on Sunday).

Is it that the question doesn't say the employee can or can't work Saturdays which makes my logic wrong?

PLEASE HELP.
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by theCodeToGMAT » Tue Sep 17, 2013 6:51 am
The Hourly working can be split into 3 cases (or more):

Case 1: 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 6
= 40(10) + 8(15) + 6(20) --> 640$

Case 2: 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 6, 8
= 40(10) + 6(15) + 8(20) --> 650$

Case 3: 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, 7
=40(10) + 7(15) + 7(20) --> 645$

And more.... So [E]
smclean23 wrote: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 is E, both statements together are not sufficient.

*I thought the answer was C. Since the employee worked a total of 54 hours but did not work more than 8 hours on any day, (Monday thru Saturday she could work 8 days per, giving her 48 hours of work then 6 hours on Sunday).

Is it that the question doesn't say the employee can or can't work Saturdays which makes my logic wrong?

PLEASE HELP.
Last edited by theCodeToGMAT on Tue Sep 17, 2013 6:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by theCodeToGMAT » Tue Sep 17, 2013 6:57 am
Consider that week has 6 working days. The Question, by stating about Sunday, clearly indicates that Monday to Saturday are definite working days.. Sunday is an additional day.

So, the possible scenarios are:
8,8,8,8,8,8,6
8,8,8,8,8,6,8
8,8,8,8,8,7,7

For each of these scenarios the Salary varies (refer my above post for calculations).. so [E].
Waqas_Jameel wrote:Guys, please explain ....

How many days does the week have ? 5 or 6 ?

Now, going by 2nd statement, he cannot work > 8 hours per day.

So it cannot be 6 days working. You cannot divide 40/8. It has to be necessarily 5 days working.
If this is true, then :

5 days work - 8*5 = 40 hrs
Saturday - 8 = 48 hrs (cumulative addition )
Sunday - 6 hrs = 54 ( Cumulative addition )

Where am I wrong here ?? Please elaborate .

smclean23 wrote: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 is E, both statements together are not sufficient.

*I thought the answer was C. Since the employee worked a total of 54 hours but did not work more than 8 hours on any day, (Monday thru Saturday she could work 8 days per, giving her 48 hours of work then 6 hours on Sunday).

Is it that the question doesn't say the employee can or can't work Saturdays which makes my logic wrong?

PLEASE HELP.
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