Hannah J.

asked • 02/22/16

I need help figure out the question in the description bar

the cost of living last year went up 14% fortunately, Alice Swanson got a 14% rise in her salary from last year. this year she is earning 26,010. How much did she make last year

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Marlene S. answered • 02/22/16

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Hi Hannah.
 
We know Alice's salary this year.  We know the percent increase she received.  We need to calculate last year's salary.
 
If t = this year's salary
s = last year's salary
r = percent increase expressed as a decimal.
 
t = s(1+r)
 
26010 = s (1.14)
 
s = 22815.79  which is last year's salary.
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Justin R.

Side note on where Marlene got the 1.14, that's a shortcut/trick of taking 14% of $22,815.79 and then adding it back to $22,815.79.  It's like sales tax. If you spend $10 on a bottle of shampoo and the tax is 8%, then you are paying $10(.08) = $.80 sales tax. If you want to know your new total you would just add that to the $10. But a shortcut is to just take $10 and multiply it by 1.08 which will give you your new total after adding the sales tax to the original amount. It's a cool short cut we math people like to use! ;)
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02/22/16

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