GMAT Prep Math - Employees

[Viswanathan.harsha]

Of the 800 employees of Company X, 70 percent have been with the company for at least ten years. If y of these "long-term" members were to retire and no other employee changes were to occur, what value of y would reduce the percent of "long-term" employees in the company to 60 percent?

A. 200
B. 160
C. 112
D. 80
E. 56

Can someone please help me with this?



OA = A

[jstern31]

So you know that 70 percent of the 800 employees are long term employees. .7 * 800 = 560

now a number of these employees are going to leave and we want to see how many it will take to bring the percentage down to 60% so lets make an equation.

(560-y)/(800-y) = .6

The numerator represents the number of long term employees after y leaves and the denominator expresses the total number of employees after y leaves.

multiply both sides by (800-y) and you get

(560-y) =.6(800-y) =480-.6y

solve for y and you get .4y = 80 => and then y= 200.

To check you can plug 200 in for y up top and see what you get. Sure enough, 360/600=.6

[RonPurewal]

there's a solution here:
of-the-800-employees-of-company-x-70-percent-t3372.html