Question

Allison earns a $40,000 base salary plus a commission equal to 15% of her total sales. If she earned $70,000 last year, what were her total sales?

Answer 1

`$200,000`

Explanation:

Allison earned `$70,000` which is `$30,000` more than her base salary. Since this extra money (her commission) is worth `15%` of her sales, `$30,000` is `15%` of her total sales.

A handy way of finding percentages is to use the ratio IS/OF = PERCENT/100

So if `$30,000` IS `15%` OF "x" total sales, what is the total sales?

`$30,000` divided by total sales equals `15%` divided by `100`. Cross multiply:
`$30,000` times `100`. Take the product and divide it by `15`. Total sales equals `200,000`

`$30,000`(`100`)=`$3,000,000`
`($3,000,000)/15=$200,000`

Total sales `=$200,00`

Hope this helped!

Celestron5