Question

"New employees joining a firm in the clerical grade receive an annual salary of $8500. For every year they stay with the firm they have a salary increase of $800, up to a maximum of $13300 annual salary. How much does a new employee earn in total, up to and including the year on minimum salary?"

a) $8,500
b) $13,300
c) $12,700
d) $11,900

Answer 1

A new employee earns a total of $12,700 up to and including the year on minimum salary.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find out how much a new employee earns in total, up to and including the year on minimum salary, we can use arithmetic progression. The starting salary is $8,500, and for every year they stay with the firm, they receive a salary increase of $800. The maximum annual salary is $13,300. In this case, the employee will receive a salary increase of $800/year for a certain number of years until they reach the maximum salary of $13,300/year.

To calculate the number of years until the maximum salary is reached, we can use the formula: (Maximum Salary - Starting Salary) / Salary Increase. In this case, the calculation is: (13300 - 8500) / 800 = 13.75. Since the years must be a whole number, we round down to 13 years. The total earnings up to and including the year on minimum salary is then: Starting Salary + (Number of Years on Minimum Salary x Salary Increase) = 8500 + (13 x 800) = $12,700.

Therefore, the correct answer is c) $12,700.