proportion problems.

[dskaar0907]

A contract settlement gives workers an increase of 5.3% of their current wage. If the amount of nicrease is 80 cents per hour, what was their hourly wage before the raise? Round to the nearest cent.
Again I don't know where to begin to set it up!

A salesperson earns 3.5% commission on her sales. If she earned $22,575 in commission, what were her sales? Same thing don't know how to set it up to even begin the problem!

 

[Deleted member 4993]

A contract settlement gives workers an increase of 5.3% of their current wage. If the amount of nicrease is 80 cents per hour, what was their hourly wage before the raise? Round to the nearest cent.
Again I don't know where to begin to set it up!

Name things to find → Old Wage = W

Given: → an increase of 5.3% of their current wage and increase in wage is 0.8 $

Increase in wage = (5.3/100) * (Old Wage) and Increase in wage = 0. 8 $

So:

(5.3/100) * (Old Wage) = 0. 8 $

Solve for W from above.

A salesperson earns 3.5% commission on her sales. If she earned $22,575 in commission, what were her sales? Same thing don't know how to set it up to even begin the problem!

Try the second one following the steps outlined above

 

[mmm4444bot]

I suppose that we could set up a proportion to solve the first exercise, but what they're actually asking is "5.3% of what number equals 0.8"?

In other words: 0.053x = 0.8

To set up a proportion, instead, you first already know that the percent sign % means "per hundred", yes? In other words, we can write 5.3% as the ratio 5.3/100ths.

Again, pick a symbol to represent the requested unknown number.

The ratio 0.8 to x is the same as the ratio 5.3 to 100, so that's a proportion.

5.3/100 = 0.8/x