Question

Now that Oakland Auto Reapir has a different owner, its mechanics make $14.20 per hour. That is 25.1% less than they originally made. How much did the mechanics use to make per hour?

Please show a step-by-step explanation.

Answer 1

$18.96

Explanation:

Now the mechanics earn $14.2 per hour, which is 25.1% less than before.

If we say that the earnings before were 100% (to facilitate our calculation and understand better), now the earrings are (100-25.1)%=74.9%. This is, now they make the 74.9% of what they used to made.

So:

74.9% = 14.2

Let's multiply both sides by 100%/74.9% to make a 100% appear at the left side (see that multiply and divide by 74.9 will make it desapear):

74.9% *(100%/74.9%) = 14.2 * (100%/74.9%)

100% = 14.2 * (100%/74.9%)

And (100%/74.9%) is equal to 1/0.749, they are the same. So:

100% = 14.2 * 1/0.749

100% = 18.96

So, before the new manager they used to make $18.96. (you can verify by multiplying it by 74.9% and the result is 14.2)