Math  /  Algebra

QuestionQuestion 12 You are offered two different sales jobs. The first company offers a straight commission of 5%5 \% of the sales. The second company offers a salary of $440\$ 440 per week plus 3%3 \% of the sales. How much would you have to sell in a week in order for the straight commission offer to be at least as good?

Studdy Solution

STEP 1

What is this asking? How much do I need to sell to make the commission-only job pay at least as much as the salary plus commission job? Watch out! Don't mix up the commission percentages or forget to include the base salary in your calculations!

STEP 2

1. Define the functions
2. Set up the inequality
3. Solve for the sales amount

STEP 3

Let's define E1E_1 as the earnings from the first job (straight commission) and E2E_2 as the earnings from the second job (salary plus commission).
We'll use xx to represent the amount of sales in $\$ made in a week.

STEP 4

The first company offers a straight commission of 5%5\% of sales.
So, the earnings from the first job can be represented as: E1=0.05xE_1 = 0.05 \cdot x

STEP 5

The second company offers a salary of $440\$440 per week plus 3%3\% of sales.
So, the earnings from the second job can be represented as: E2=440+0.03xE_2 = 440 + 0.03 \cdot x

STEP 6

We want to find the sales amount xx where the straight commission offer (E1E_1) is *at least as good* as the salary plus commission offer (E2E_2). "At least as good" means greater than or equal to.
So, we can set up the following inequality: E1E2E_1 \ge E_2

STEP 7

Now, substitute the expressions we found for E1E_1 and E2E_2: 0.05x440+0.03x0.05 \cdot x \ge 440 + 0.03 \cdot x

STEP 8

To isolate the xx terms, let's subtract 0.03x0.03 \cdot x from both sides of the inequality: 0.05x0.03x440+0.03x0.03x0.05 \cdot x - 0.03 \cdot x \ge 440 + 0.03 \cdot x - 0.03 \cdot x 0.02x4400.02 \cdot x \ge 440

STEP 9

Now, to find xx, we'll divide both sides of the inequality by **0.02**: 0.02x0.024400.02\frac{0.02 \cdot x}{0.02} \ge \frac{440}{0.02} x22000x \ge 22000

STEP 10

You would need to sell at least $22,000\$22,000 worth of products or services in a week for the straight commission offer to be at least as good as the salary plus commission offer.

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