Question

A competitive car wash currently hires 4 workers, who together can wash 80 cars per day. The market price of car washes is $5 per wash, and the price of workers is $60 per day. The car wash should hire a fifth worker if it would increase total production to at least

a.92 cars per day.
b.100 cars per day.
c.104 cars per day.
d.110 cars per day.

Answer 1

b) 100 cars per day.

Step-by-step explanation:

With the information above, we can conclude that each worker washes 20 cars per day, and earns a wage of $60 per day.

So the total labor costs per day is $60 wage per worker X 4 workers = $240

The total sales revenue per day is: 80 cars washed per day X $5 per wash = $400.

So, we can see that with four workers, the firm has a good profit of = $400 - $240 = $160.

If the firm hired a fifth worker, labor costs would increase to $320 ($240 + $60), the amount of cars washed would increase to 100, and the sales revenue would increase to $500 (100 x $5).

So, profits would increase to $180 ($500 - $320) if the firm hired a fifth worker.

However, productivity should still be stable, so a worker who washed less than 20 cars per day should not be hired, this is why the A option is wrong.