Undoing a pay cut — Percentages Aptitude Question
Undoing a pay cut: A worker's salary is reduced by 20%. By what percent must the reduced salary be increased to… Answer and worked solution on CodeKairo.
- Topic: Percentages
- Section: Quantitative Aptitude
- Difficulty: Medium
- Time target: 60 seconds
Question
A worker's salary is reduced by 20%. By what percent must the reduced salary be increased to bring it back to the original?
Options
- 20%
- 22%
- 25%
- 30%
Show the answer and the worked solution
Correct answer: C. 25%
Worked solution
- Salary 100 → 80 after the cut.
- To return to 100 it must rise by 20, and 20/80 = 0.25.
- So it must rise by 25%.
Answer: 25%.
The idea
A cut of x% needs a rise of 100x/(100 − x) percent to reverse it. The two are never equal because the base has changed.
Shortcut. A cut of 1/5 is undone by a rise of 1/4, since 4/5 × 5/4 = 1 — so 25%.
Common trap. 20% — reversing the cut with the same 20%, which from 80 only climbs back to 96.