Jenny works at Sammy's Restaurant and is paid according to the rates in the following
table.
Jenny's weekly wage agreement
Basic wage $600.00
PLUS
$0.90 for each customer served.
In a week when Jenny serves n customers, her weekly wage, W, in dollars, is given by
the formula
W = 600+ 0.90n.
(i) Determine Jenny's weekly wage if she served 230 customers.
(ii) In a good week, Jenny's wage is $1 000.00 or more. What is the LEAST number
of customers that Jenny must serve in order to have a good week?
(iii) At the same restaurant, Shawna is paid a weekly wage of $270.00 plus $1.50 for
each customer she serves.
If W, is Shawna's weekly wage, in dollars, write a formula for calculating Shawna's
weekly wage when she serves m customers.
(iv) In a certain week, Jenny and Shawna received the same wage for serving the same
number of customers.
How many customers did they EACH serve?
3 / 3
(i) If Jenny serves 230 customers, her weekly wage is
W = 600 + 0.90n = 600 + 0.90(230) = $807.00
Therefore, Jenny's weekly wage if she serves 230 customers is $807.00.
(ii) We want to find the least number of customers, n, that Jenny must serve in order to earn $1,000 or more. That is,
600 + 0.90n ≥ 1,000
0.90n ≥ 400
n ≥ 444.44
Since n must be a whole number, Jenny must serve at least 445 customers in order to earn $1,000 or more in a week.
(iii) Shawna's weekly wage, W, in dollars, when she serves m customers is given by the formula:
W = 270 + 1.50m
Therefore, Shawna's weekly wage when she serves m customers is $270.00 plus $1.50 for each customer she serves.
(iv) Let's assume that Jenny and Shawna received the same wage, W, for serving the same number of customers, x. Then we have:
Jenny's wage = 600 + 0.90x
Shawna's wage = 270 + 1.50x
Setting these two expressions equal to each other, we get:
600 + 0.90x = 270 + 1.50x
330 = 0.60x
x = 550
Therefore, Jenny and Shawna each served 550 customers.