Find last year's salary if after a 4% raise , this year's salary is $44,200.

alright this is what I did:
x * .04 = 44,200/.04

=1105000

then

1105000+ .04(1105000) and got a huge number that is completely wrong. I was following the example for this type of problem. l have no idea what I did or where I went wrong with this.

Question

Find last year's salary if after a 4% raise , this year's salary is $44,200. 

alright this is what I did:
x * .04 = 44,200/.04

=1105000

then

1105000+ .04(1105000) and got a huge number that is completely wrong. I was following the example for this type of problem. l have no idea what I did or where I went wrong with this.

anonymous · Answer

A 4% rise is given by the number 1.04. So you should have:
$$1.04*x=44,200$$
Divide by 1.04 to get:
$$x=42,500$$
Do you see where you went wrong?

anonymous · Answer

Why is it 1.04?

anonymous · Answer

Because 1.04 is 1 and 4 hundredths, i.e. what we had before + 4 hundredths of what we had before. In other words, what we had before +4% of what we had.

anonymous · Answer

Gracias. Appreciate it.