Question

Joan works on commission for a furniture store. She gets a base pay of $80 a day plus 4 percent of the value of any merchandise she sells that exceeds a total of $400. Joan wrote the expression 400 + 0.04(t − 80), where t represents her sales total in dollars, to compute the total amount of money that she will make. For sales of $500 Joan calculated that she will make $416.80. Explain Joan's error by completing the correct expression and how much she will make.

Answer 1

Total amount earned = $84

Explanation:

The correct expression is

Total amount earned = 80 + 4% of (t - 400)

= 80 + 0.04(t - 400)

where,

t = her sales total in dollars

Total amount of money that she will make for sales of $500

Total amount earned = 80 + 0.04(t - 400)

= 80 + 0.04(500 - 400)

= 80 + 0.04(100)

= 80 + 4

= 84

Total amount earned = $84