SAT Percentages Practice Question 9 (Hard)

Math · Problem-Solving and Data AnalysisHard

In $2019$ , a company had $240$ employees, and $35\%$ of them were women. In $2020$ , the company hired additional employees, all of whom were women, and no one left the company. After the hiring, $48\%$ of the company's employees were women. How many employees did the company hire?

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Answer: 60

In $2019$ , there were $0.35 \times 240 = 84$ women. If $n$ women were hired, then $\frac{84 + n}{240 + n} = 0.48$ . Multiplying gives $84 + n = 115.2 + 0.48n$ , so $0.52n = 31.2$ and $n = 60$ . Check: $\frac{144}{300} = 0.48$ .

Computing $13\%$ of $240$ ( $31.2$ ) treats the percentage-point increase as a percent of the original staff, ignoring that the total also grows.

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