Final answer:
The sales clerk completed all of the above steps: calculated the sales tax, added the prices of items, and applied the sales tax rate to find the total amount due.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the given scenario, the sales clerk completed the following steps: calculated the sales tax, added the prices of the items (jeans and jacket), and finally, applied the sales tax rate to the subtotal to find the total amount due. This means the correct answer is that the sales clerk completed all of the steps mentioned (d) All of the above.
To illustrate this process, consider that if someone purchased items totaling $20.98, and the sales tax rate is 8.25%, you would first convert this percentage to a decimal (0.0825), and then multiply it by the total cost to find the amount of sales tax:
$20.98 × 0.0825 = $1.73105
Then, round this amount to the nearest cent to obtain $1.73 as the sales tax. Finally, you would add the sales tax to the original amount to get the total amount payable:
$20.98 + $1.73 = $22.71
This example shows how the sales clerk would perform the necessary calculations to determine the total cost of a customer's purchase including sales tax.