Passage Summary: Programmers want a raise to match the writers' pay. The executive says the writers earn more simply because they've worked there longer, which is how the company's pay system is designed.

Conclusion: The 20 percent pay gap between technical writers and programmers is acceptable because it is based on seniority.

Reasoning: Pay at Mytheco is tied to seniority, and many technical writers have been at the company longer than many of the programmers.

Analysis: The executive's defense is a bit slippery; they use the word 'many' to explain an 'average' difference. To evaluate if this response is actually 'adequate,' we need to know if the seniority difference is large enough to account for the *entire* 20 percent gap. If the writers only have a few weeks more seniority on average, but earn 20 percent more, the executive's excuse falls apart. Look for an answer that seeks to clarify the actual correlation between the amount of seniority and the size of the pay difference.