A survey indicates that the mean annual wages for forensic science technicians working for local and state governments are $55,950 and $51,100, respectively. The survey includes a randomly selected sample of size 100 from each government branch. Assume that the population standard deviations are $6200 (local) and $5575 (state). The two samples are independent. At α = 0.10, is there enough evidence to conclude that there is a difference in the mean annual wages?

a. Identify the claim and state H₀ and H_a.

b. Identify the level of significance α.

c. Find the critical values and identify the rejection regions.

d. Find the standardized test statistic z. Sketch a graph.

e. Decide whether to reject the null hypothesis.

f. Interpret the decision in the context of the original claim.