Question

Anita works a part-time job where she makes $9.45 per hour. Anita's gross pay for the current pay period is $238.61. Her deductions include $28.63 for federal taxes, $14.79 for Social Security, $3.46 for Medicare, and $10.14 for state taxes.
How many hours did Anita work and what was her net pay?
Anita works 31 hours next week. What is her gross pay, the total amount of deductions, and net pay, assuming the same percentage is taken out for each of her deductions during the next pay period?

Answer 1

- how many hours did Anita work, and what was her net pay?

gross pay = (hours worked)(hourly wage), before any deductions. so hours worked is simply gross pay/hourly wage = 238.61/9.45

net pay is gross pay - the four deductions mentioned (federal tax, social security, medicare, state tax)

Answer 2

- Anita works 31 hours next week. What is her gross pay, the total amount of deductions, and net pay, assuming the same percentage is taken out for each of her deductions during the next pay period?

she works 31 hours so her gross pay is 31 hours * $9.25/hr

deductions are a percentage taken out of the gross pay

let's go back to the beginning of the problem: $28.63 was the federal tax, taken out of $238.61 gross pay. as a percentage, this is 28.63/238.61 * 100% = 12%

to calculate how much federal tax is taken from Anita's 31-hour workweek, multiply 0.12 * gross pay (remember to use the gross pay from 31 weeks, not the other one)

repeat with the other three deductions

net pay, like before, is gross pay - deductions