Museum visitor: The national

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct72% picked this

   Some of the museum's employees are not paid significantly more than

   Why this is right

   It's worth rephrasing "not paid significantly more than" into something like "paid the minimum wage or slightly more". Is the author assuming that at least one museum employee is paid at minimum wage, or slightly more? Of course? If we negated this, and all employees were paid significantly more than the minimum wage, then the slightly higher new minimum wage wouldn't have any affect on the museum's payroll / operating expenses. This has the lovable "not" we see in most Defender answers. Always negate these and see if they would weaken. An interesting quality about this question is that when you negate the answer, it weakens the argument by contradicting a premise. The negation of this allows us to say that the mandate will NOT increase operating expenses, which is contradicting the "since" premise. LSAT very rarely weakens by contradicting premises but it does happen occasionally, so we should be receptive to the possibility.

   Skill tested: Necessary Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   72%
2. B

   Too Strong13% picked this

   The museum's revenue from admission fees has remained constant over the

   This supports the idea that the museum should not expect additional revenue next year, but this doesn’t need to be true in order for the mandate to force the museum to raise admission fees or decrease services.

   13%
3. C

   Weakens8% picked this

   Some of the museum's employees are paid more than the current

   This includes that possibility that all employees earn more than the minimum wage. In which case, the museum may not face an increase in operating expenses next year.

   8%
4. D

   Weakens3% picked this

   The annual number of visitors to the museum has

   This suggests that an alternative option might exist. Perhaps the museum expects that the number of visitors will increase enough to cover the extra operating cost created by the mandated increase in the minimum wage.

   3%
5. E

   Weakens4% picked this

   Not all visitors to the museum are required to pay an

   This suggests that an alternative option might exist. Perhaps the museum could cover any increased costs by charging all visitors an admission fee.

   4%