# Hector received a pay raise this year. The raise was 6% of last year's salary. This year he will earn $15,900. What was his salary last year before the raise? ##### 1 Answer May 29, 2018 See a solution process below: #### Explanation: The formula for calculating a new salary is: $n = p + \left(p \cdot r\right)$Where: $n$is the new salary:$15,900 for this problem.

$p$ is the previous salary: what we are solving for in this problem.

$r$ is the pay raise percentage: 6% for this problem. "Percent" or "%" means "out of 100" or "per 100", Therefore 6% can be written as $\frac{6}{100}$.

Substituting and solving for $p$ gives:

$15900 = p + (p * 6/100) $15900 = p + (6p)/100

$15900 = 100/100p + 6/100p $15900 = (100/100 + 6/100)p

$15900 = 106/100p color(red)(100)/color(blue)(106) xx$15900 = color(red)(100)/color(blue)(106) xx 106/100p

($1590000)/color(blue)(106) = cancel(color(red)(100))/cancel(color(blue)(106)) xx color(blue)(cancel(color(black)(106)))/color(red)(cancel(color(black)(100)))p $15000 = p

p = $15000 Hector's salary last year before the raise was: color(red)($15,000)