Last year the range of the annual salaries of the 100

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BTGmoderatorLU: Moderator; Posts: 2505; Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:50 pm; Followed by:6 members

Last year the range of the annual salaries of the 100

by BTGmoderatorLU » Thu Feb 21, 2019 2:27 pm

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Source: GMAT Prep

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

The OA is C

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Thu Feb 21, 2019 2:27 pm

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Brent@GMATPrepNow: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 16207; Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pm; Location: Vancouver, BC; Thanked: 5254 times; Followed by:1268 members; GMAT Score:770

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Feb 21, 2019 3:01 pm

BTGmoderatorLU wrote:Source: GMAT Prep

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

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

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Scott@TargetTestPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 8086; Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2015 10:56 am; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 43 times; Followed by:29 members

by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Sun Feb 24, 2019 5:33 am

BTGmoderatorLU wrote:Source: GMAT Prep

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

The OA is C

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

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

Answer: C

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder and CEO
[email protected]