LSAT 129 – Section 3 – Question 06

LSAT 129 - Section 3 - Question 06

June 2009

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT129 S3 Q06
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
79%
165
B
1%
158
C
1%
155
D
19%
162
E
1%
152
123
141
159
 +Easier 146.07 +SubsectionMedium

Economist: As should be obvious, raising the minimum wage significantly would make it more expensive for businesses to pay workers for minimum-wage jobs. Therefore, businesses could not afford to continue to employ as many workers for such jobs. So raising the minimum wage significantly will cause an increase in unemployment.

Summarize Argument
The economist concludes that significantly raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment. This is because raising the minimum wage would make minimum-wage jobs more expensive for businesses, leading to layoffs.

Notable Assumptions
The economist assumes that businesses will shoulder the costs of the minimum wage raise, rather than increasing the price of their products and services to account for the new expense. She also assumes that most businesses aren’t currently seeking a substantial number of employees to fill their minimum wage jobs, which if true would suggest that layoffs aren’t imminent.

A
Businesses typically pass the cost of increased wages on to consumers without adversely affecting profits.
The minimum wage raise won’t affect profits. Employers therefore won’t need to lay off minimum-wage workers, at least not for the reason mentioned.
B
When the difference between minimum wage and a skilled worker’s wage is small, a greater percentage of a business’s employees will be skilled workers.
We don’t care about skilled workers. We have no idea if businesses are even looking for skilled workers.
C
A modest increase in unemployment is acceptable because the current minimum wage is not a livable wage.
The economist only cares about how the minimum wage affects unemployment. We don’t care about livable wages.
D
Most workers are earning more than the current minimum wage.
The economist never claimed minimum wage workers constitute the majority of workers. We don’t care that most people earn more than the minimum wage.
E
The unemployment rate has been declining steadily in recent years.
Even if unemployment has been declining, a minimum wage raise may make it rise again. We don’t care about general trends.

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LSAT PrepTest 129 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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