PrepTest 154, Section 2, Question 1
Activist: The average CEO is paid many times(35 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(13 more words not shown)
- AAt any given(11 more words not shown)
- BAt any given(18 more words not shown)
- CAt any given(17 more words not shown)
- DAt any given(11 more words not shown)
- EPeople who are(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Let's accept both facts: CEOs earn many times more than the average worker, and they don't work many times harder. Does that settle what they should earn?
Only if working harder is what justifies earning more. The activist hasn't established that rule.
Someone might defend the pay difference by pointing to responsibilities, results, or another consideration. We don't have to agree with that defense. Its possibility shows why comparing effort alone doesn't establish that the higher pay is unjustified.
Be careful with the comparison, too. The activist doesn't say that CEOs do no work or that every employee works equally hard. The point is that the huge difference in pay isn't matched by a similarly huge difference in effort.
What we’re looking for
We're asked for a principle that supports this reasoning. Give us the missing rule: within a company, pay should be proportional to effort. Then a pay difference that greatly exceeds the difference in effort would violate the standard we're supposed to use. We can judge the argument without settling the larger debate about what CEOs deserve.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This connects the two things the activist compares: pay and how hard someone works. If pay should rise in proportion to effort, earning many times as much would require working many times harder. The activist says CEOs don't do that. A therefore gives the complaint about their pay a basis.
- B
Contribution to the company's success isn't the same as effort. Someone could work fewer hours or expend less effort while making a particularly valuable contribution. We aren't told how much CEOs and average workers contribute to success, so this standard doesn't turn the activist's evidence about effort into support for the conclusion.
- C
How much money someone needs for a comfortable life is a different standard again. The passage gives us no comparison of CEOs' and workers' needs. We can't use this rule just because it also concerns what people should earn.
- D
These people don't necessarily perform the same work. A CEO and another employee could work equally hard at entirely different jobs. A rule requiring equal pay for the same work doesn't tell us how to compare their pay when their work differs.
- E
An obligation to work hard concerns what people should do. The conclusion concerns whether their pay is justified. Even if everyone has this obligation, we still need a rule connecting the amount of effort to the amount of pay.
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