Ange makes $77,300 per year; Peg makes $96,510 per year. Their household bills per month are $3000. What monthly amount should Ange pay? Peg pay?

Question

Rather than divide bills by half, what is the amount that should be paid based on proportion of salary amount?

Answer 1

This question wants you to first find the proportion of each person's income compared to the total household income, and then to apply that proportion to the household bills, so that the person with the most income pays a larger amount - though the proportion or percentage is the same for both. We start by adding the two incomes to arrive at the total household income for the year:

 

$77,300 + $96,510 = $173,810

 

We now have the numbers we need, so we will go about finding each person's proportion. Divide each person's yearly income by the total yearly household income:

 

Ange: $77,300/$173,810 = 0.44474 or 4447.4/10000

Peg: $96,510/$173,810 = 0.55526 or 5552.6/10000

 

If you would use percentage, these could be rounded off to 44.47% (Ange) & 55.53% (Peg).

 

Now that we know the proportion of each person's income to the total household income, there is one more step to compute each person's monthly payment for bills. We simply multiply each person's proportion by the amount of monthly bills:

 

Ange: 4447.4/10000 x $3000 = $13,342,200/10000 = $1,334.22

Peg: 5552.6/10000 x $3000 = $16,657,800/10000 = $1,665.78

 

Check your answer to make sure the monthly bills are covered:

 

$1,334.22 + $1,665.78 = $3,000