Question

James just began a job as a nurse. He is given a starting salary of $66,640 per year. He is also told that his salary will increase to $73,400 in 8 years. Assume that x = the years worked and y = Salary in dollars. Using this information, find the following answers:

What is the rate of change of James’ salary?
Instructions: Find the slope by first creating two points in the form (years, salary), and then calculate the slope using the correct slope formula.

Answer 1

$ 845

Explanation:

James' joining salary is $66,640

In 8 years his salary will increase to $73,400.

Now, that is an increase of $73,400-$66,640=$6760 in a total of 8 years.

This means that if in 8 years the salary increases by $6760, then in 1 year or in per year basis, the increase on James salary (also called the rate of change) will be:

`(73400-66640)/(8) =845`

In the above we have used the slope formula as:

`(y_2-y_1)/(x_2-x_1)` where,
`(x_2,y_2) are (8,73400)` and (x_1,y_1)=(0, 66640).