Brendan makes $6/hour as a waiter. He's scheduled for 2 8-hour shifts and 1 12-hour shift this week. He also makes an average of $12 in tips each hour. Brendan is supposed to pay 20% of his income in taxes, but he only reports 1/3rd of his tips to the IRS. How much money does Brendan pay in taxes each week?
Thoughts? Step-by-step reasoning:
First find the total number of hours Brendan works for the 8 - hour shifts: 2 shifts * 8 hours / shift = 16 hours. Then find the total number of hours Brendan works by adding those hours to the 12 - hour shift: 16 hours + 12 hours = 28 hours. Now find Brendan's total wage earnings by multiplying his $6 / hour wage by the number of hours he works: $6 / hour * 28 hours = $168 / week. Now figure out how much Brendan makes in tips by multiplying the number of hours he works by the amount of tips he makes per hour: $12 / hour * 28 hours / week = $336 / week. Now divide that number by 3, since Brendan only reports a third of his tips: $336 / week / 3 = $112 / week. Now add Brendan's wage earnings to that number to find how much income he reports to the IRS each week: $168 / week + $112 / week = $280 / week. Finally, multiply Brendan's reported income by his tax rate to find how much he pays in taxes each week: $280 / week * .2 = $56 / week.
Thus, the answer is 56.