PrepTest 107, Section 3, Question 21
A study of the difference in earnings between(64 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(17 more words not shown)
- AIn Naota, the(28 more words not shown)
- BIn Naota, the(32 more words not shown)
- CIn Naota, a(24 more words not shown)
- DIn Naota, a(21 more words not shown)
- EIn ten other(50 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why do the two studies find different gaps? That is a different question from why men and women earn different amounts.
The first study could make us wonder about discrimination, different jobs, or different hours. Those are possible explanations to investigate. But the puzzle changes when the second finding arrives: women earn 80 percent as much in one comparison and only 65 percent as much in the other. We need to explain how both results can be right.
Look at who is counted. The first comparison includes only full-time workers. The second includes all employed workers, so it also brings in people working part time. Adding those workers could change the averages. Perhaps women are more likely to work part time, and part-time jobs produce lower annual earnings.
What we’re looking for
That is the difference I would investigate for this question. Different samples or regions could also produce different results, but the passage gives us a specific change in the groups being compared. A useful answer should explain why including part-time workers could pull women's average earnings down more than men's. We do not need a complete explanation of the original full-time wage gap.
Working the answers
- A
A gap changing over 30 years does not explain why these two comparisons give different results. We are not told the studies describe different periods. Even if the gap has grown, we still need to explain the difference between full-time workers and all workers.
- B
This addresses a question we considered at the start: do women and men receive different pay for the same work under the same conditions? Nearly equal pay in that narrower comparison could help us understand the broader wage gap. But B does not explain why adding part-time workers makes the gap larger. It leaves the contrast between the two studies unresolved.
- C
More women entering higher-paying positions might help their earnings over time. That does not tell us why the all-worker comparison is lower than the full-time comparison. A growing proportion in those jobs also does not mean most women have them, so we should not treat C as eliminating any possible wage gap.
- DCorrect
Both parts matter. Part-time workers typically earn less annually, and a larger proportion of women work part time. When we add part-time workers to the calculation, lower annual earnings therefore play a larger role in the women's average. That helps explain why the ratio falls from 80 percent to 65 percent. We do not need part-time women to be paid less than part-time men for the same work; the different proportions working part time can help produce the result.
- E
Other countries can have many different wage gaps. That does not explain why these two studies of Naota produce different numbers. E also reports only full-time earnings, leaving out the very group added in the second comparison.
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