Research data indicate that there is a great deal of poverty

[JbhB682]

Source : GMAT prep

Research data indicate that there is a great deal of poverty in the United States among single parent families headed by women. This problem could result from the fact that women’s wages are only 60 percent of men’s. Some economists believe that rigorous enforcement of existing equal pay laws would substantially decrease this wage inequity. But equal pay laws are ineffectual when women and men are concentrated in different occupations because such laws require only that women and men doing the same jobs be paid the same. Since gender concentration exists (for example, 80 percent of clerical workers are women), other economists argue that a comparable worth standard, which would mandate that women and men in any jobs that require comparable training and responsibility be paid the same, should be applied instead. But some policy analysts assert that, although comparable worth would virtually equalize male and female wages, many single parent families headed by women would remain in poverty because many men earn wages that are below the poverty line. These policy analysts believe that the problem is not caused primarily by wage inequity but rather by low wages coupled with single parent hood, regardless of sex. As a solution, they challenge the government’s assumption that a family’s income should depend primarily on wages and urge the government to provide generous wage supplements (child and housing allowances) to single parents whose wages are low.


According to the passage, some economists believe that, in the United States, there would be smaller differences between the wages of women and men who do the same jobs if

(A) equal pay laws were enforced more fully
(B) more stringent equal pay laws were passed
(C) a more rigorous comparable worth standard were developed and applied
(D) more men entered the occupations in which women are concentrated
(E) women received the same kind and amount of job training that men receive

OA is A

[JbhB682]

Why is option d wrong..

I thought per the passage because gender concentration exists (80 percent women in clerical roles)

Having equal pay laws IMPLEMENTED will not do much to reduce wage gap

Instead more men have to be move into low wage roles which is option D

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

It's important to distinguish the different points of view here. I agree with you that wages would be more equal if more men and women did the same job. However, that's not what the question is asking.

The question states 'According to the passage, some economists believe that...'. Your first task is to identify the economists mentioned in this question. There are two sets of economists mentioned in the passage, one in line 2, and another in line 4. One of the challenges of this problem is that you don't immediately know which set the question is referring to.

Second, remember that this is an 'according to' problem. Therefore you're looking for something stated directly in the passage. It's not an inference problem, in which you're looking for something implied by the passage but not stated directly. Nowhere in the passage does it mention men entering occupations.

Finally, your logic seems to be flawed because the question concerns 'differences between the wages of women and men who do the same jobs'. It's not clear how having men change their occupation would affect this. The question isn't, as you seem to imply, about reducing the wage gap, per se.

[khoad93]

Dear instructors,

I got the following question of this passage:

The passage suggests that the United States government’s policy towards providing wage supplements to parents whose wages are low is

(A) considered ill advised by most economists who have studied the issue
(B) based on assumptions about the appropriate sources of family income
(C) under revision in response to criticism from some policy analysts
(D) capable of eliminating wage inequality but not of raising incomes for both women and men
(E) applicable to single-parent families headed by women but not to single-parent families headed by men

I considered between (A) and (B). I guessed I went to the right spot "As a solution, they challenge the government’s assumption that a family’s income should depend primarily on wages and urge the government to provide generous wage supplements (child and housing allowances) to single parents whose wages are low."

But I could not figure out why (B) is a paraphrase of the above sentence, it is kind of far-fetched for me. I ended up choosing (A) instead, I knew it was wrong. But I could not be totally convinced by (B). Please explain that.

Thank you

[esledge]

Ooh, that's tricky. I read the sentence you cited from the passage and thought "hey, that does sound like what both (A) and (B) are saying."

But reading it in the context of the overall passage, I noticed that "they" doesn't refer to "most economists" or even "some economists" or just "economists." The "they" in that last sentence of the passage refers to the "policy analysts" in the 2 previous sentences.

So (A) mixes up who "they" refers to, and also (I think) would have gone too far with "most," anyway.

[esledge]

The passage suggests that the United States government’s policy towards providing wage supplements to parents whose wages are low is
.....
(B) based on assumptions about the appropriate sources of family income
.....
I guessed I went to the right spot "As a solution, they challenge the government’s assumption that a family’s income should depend primarily on wages and urge the government to provide generous wage supplements (child and housing allowances) to single parents whose wages are low."

But I could not figure out why (B) is a paraphrase of the above sentence, it is kind of far-fetched for me. I ended up choosing (A) instead, I knew it was wrong. But I could not be totally convinced by (B). Please explain that.

Sorry, I missed this part of your question: why is (B) right?

On "passage suggests" questions, expect there to be a little bit of rephrasing between the passage and the correct answer, but they should say equivalent things. In math terms, if the passage says "x is less than y," then the right answer would say something like "y is greater than x." It's said differently, but means the same thing.

Here's that rephrase process on this one:
The passage says "As a solution, they challenge the government’s assumption that a family’s income should depend primarily on wages and urge the government..." to do something.
Rephrase: the government has an assumption about where a family's income should come from ("depend primarily on wages")
Rephrase: the govt thinks income should come mostly from wages
Choice (B): the US government's policy is "based on assumptions about the appropriate sources of family income"