Gross Pay (SQA National 5 Applications of Mathematics): Revision Note

These questions come up on both papers. Make sure you practise adding and multiplying with decimals without a calculator. Also, make sure you can find percentages of numbers, both with and without a calculator.

Rule usually works 28 hours each week.

He is paid time and a half for any additional hours that he works.

His basic rate of pay is £14.20.

Last week, he worked a total of 35 hours.

Calculate his gross pay for last week.

Answer:

STEP 1
Calculate Rule's basic pay

$28\times \pounds 14.20=\pounds 397.60$

STEP2
Calculate Rule's overtime pay

• Find the number of hours worked overtime

$35-28=7$

• Find the hourly overtime rate

$1.5\times \pounds 14.20=\pounds 21.30$

• Multiply together

$7\times \pounds 21.30=\pounds 149.10$

STEP 3
Add the basic pay and overtime pay together

$\pounds 397.60+\pounds 149.10=\pounds 546.70$

£546.70

Romain works as a salesperson for a phone company.

She is paid a basic monthly salary of £1650 plus commission of 4% on her monthly sales over £12,000.

In August, her sales totalled £21,000.

Calculate Romain's gross pay in August.

Answer:

STEP 1
Calculate the commission pay

• Find the amount of sales that the commission is applied to

$\pounds 21,000-\pounds 12,000=\pounds 9000$

• Multiply this by the rate of commission

$\begin{array}{rcl}4\%\times \pounds 9,000& =& 0.04\times \pounds 9000\\ & =& \pounds 360\end{array}$

STEP 2
Add the basic salary and the commission together

$\pounds 1650+\pounds 360=\pounds 2010$

£2010