PrepTest 129

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Weaken

Stimulus Summary:
Raising the minimum wage makes it more expensive to run a business, so businesses could afford fewer workers, so raising the minimum wage will raise unemployment.

Answer Anticipation:
The strong conclusion indicator words in this argument make the structure relatively easy to determine—there's a premise that leads to an intermediate conclusion before reaching the main conclusion. As with any Weaken question that features an intermediate conclusion, we should look for assumptions at each step of the argument.

Is there an assumption between the premise and the intermediate conclusion? Yep. Just because expenses go up because of the minimum wage increase, that doesn't mean businesses can afford fewer workers. If the increase manages to increase the revenue businesses make (because service is better with higher-paid servers; because other workers have more money to spend), then businesses might be able to afford the same number (or more) workers. Any answer that suggests a raise to minimum wage would offset costs with more revenue will weaken this argument.

Is there an assumption between that intermediate conclusion and the main point? Yes, again! Even if businesses can individually afford fewer workers, there might be more businesses as a result of a changed minimum wage, and so unemployment might not go down if these additional businesses hire the workers that others can't afford. Any answer that suggests this might happen (or some other way unemployment could not decrease despite businesses affording fewer workers) will also undermine this argument.

Answer Explanation:
While this answer doesn't match our specific anticipation, it does match our general one from the jump between the premise and the intermediate conclusion. If businesses pass on the additional costs associated with increased wages to consumers, then they could see increased expenses without lacking the ability to afford paying them. The consumers in this case would bear the cost of the raise, and thus the businesses wouldn't have to fire anyone. This weakens that connection, weakening the argument overall.

Key Takeaway:
When an argument features an intermediate conclusion, assumptions can be made in forming either conclusion. For questions that address these assumptions, you should take time during the anticipation step to look at both gaps in reasoning.

Incorrect. The stimulus doesn't establish that the raised minimum wage will be close to skilled wages, so this answer doesn't necessarily apply to the scenario in the stimulus.

Incorrect. The acceptability of the downsides of raising the minimum wage would be relevant in an argument about whether the minimum wage should or should not be raised, but this argument is only about those effects, so this answer is out of scope.

Incorrect. Even if most are earning more than the minimum wage, some presumably are, and so expenses and unemployment could go up even with only a minority of workers affected.

Incorrect. This information about a past trend would presumably be affected by a change such as a raise to a minimum wage, which could stall or reverse the trend.