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4.6d: Translate percents and applications - commission
Commission is something that you earn when you sell something.
The commission equation is just like those before
in which the part equals percent times whole.
In this case, the part is the amount of commission
and it is equal to the percent times the amount of sales or the price.
In example 1, we see a cell phone company
pays a 14% commission to its representatives.
If an employee sells $23,000 dollars worth of product in a month,
how much will she be paid?
We need to identify each of the pieces.
We see that there is a 14% commission.
This is our percent.
Next, we see that she sold $23,000 dollars.
This is the price or the sales;
and finally, it asks how much will she be paid.
This means they want to know how much commission will she earn.
Remember that we are doing the part equals the percent times the whole.
The part in this case is the amount of commission which we do not know,
let us use a C.
This will equal the percent or the commission which is 14,
remember percent means per 100.
We now multiply this by the whole or the 23,000.
We start by doing the division of 14 over 100
and we find that it is .14.
We now multiply this by the 23,000 and we get an answer of 3,220.
This is the amount of commission she will make.
In example 2, we look at another commission problem
in which a real estate agent sold $845,000 worth of properties
and she therefore earned $16,900 in commission.
What is the commission rate?
Once again, we must identify the different numbers.
We have $845,000 worth of properties.
This is the sales price or whole amount.
Secondly, we see how much she earned and her commission.
This is the part or the commission.
What is her commission rate is what we are looking for.
Once again, we write that it is part equals percent times whole.
We know the part is her commission or $16,900.
This will equal the percent which we do not know, so let us put X over 100.
Finally, we multiply this by the whole
or the amount he sold which was $845,000.
We not multiply to get 845,000X over 100 = 16,900.
To clear the fraction, we multiply by the LCD which is 100.
We now reduce to give us 845,000X = 1,690,000.
We now divide both sides by 845,000
and this gives us our value of X which is 2%.
Remember to include the percent as it is an important part of the problem
to show that it is a percent commission rate.
Remember when doing commission problems that it follows
the same pattern that the part equals the percent times the whole
where the part is the commission,
the percent is the commission rate,
and the whole is the price or sales that you made.
Also, remember that when dealing or looking for
the percent to always place your X over 100.
