John worked at departmental store for 5 years for $25

M7MBA wrote:John worked at the departmental store for 5 years for $25 a week. He then took up a new job and his wages were 27% more than his earlier wages. He then again changed his job and his new wages is 12% less than his last wages. What were his approximate wages at the most recent job?


A. 20
B. 22
C. 27
D. 18
E. 30

The OA is the option C.

I got confused by the changes of work. How can I find the correct answer? I don't see how to use that John worked for 5 years for $25 a week. Could anyone give me some help? I'd be thankful.

Hi there,

Since John's wages are measured in dollars per week, the number of years John worked is irrelevant to the question. Also, because the question asks for John's approximate wages, and the answer choices aren't too close together, this is an ideal question to ballpark.

John's initial wages are $25/week. His new wages are 27% more than his initial wages, an increase of just over 1/4. The number 25 isn't evenly divisible by 4, but we can approximate using the number 24. Since 24 ÷ 4 = 6, John's wages increased by just over $6. Since we underestimated the percent by which John's wages increased, and we underestimated the dollar-amount by which his wages increased, John's new rate of pay will be slightly more than $25 + $6 = $31.

John's final wage is 12% less than his new wage. Again, 12% isn't as easy to work with as 10% is, so we can ballpark by stating that John's wage decreased by just over 10%.
Ten percent of $31 is $3.10, so 1% of $31 is $0.31, and 2% of $31 is $0.62. Thus, John's new wages decreased by $3.10 + $0.62, or just under $4.

Finally, since John's new wages are just over $31, and his final wages represent a decrease of just under $4, his final wages are approximately $31 - $4 = $27.

Hope this helps.

M7MBA wrote:John worked at the departmental store for 5 years for $25 a week. He then took up a new job and his wages were 27% more than his earlier wages. He then again changed his job and his new wages is 12% less than his last wages. What were his approximate wages at the most recent job?


A. 20
B. 22
C. 27
D. 18
E. 30

His new wage is:

25 x 1.27 x 0.88

25 x 127/100 x 88/100

127/4 x 88/100 = 127 x 22/100 ≈ 28

We see that of the given choices, 27 is closest to 28.

Alternate Solution:

We can do simple math in our heads to approximate the answer. John started at $25 per week. His new wage was 25% (or about 1/4) more. We see that 1/4 of 25 is about 6, so his new wage was about $31. We can approximate the next job’s 12% decrease by 10%, so $31 decreased by 10% is about $28.

Answer: C