Base salary plus commission

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Question from mike, a student:

i need some help with this word problem.
in november 2001, hall kinion advertised an account executive position in savannah georgia for a salesperson with experience selling internet services. the job advertised a 3500 dollar base salary and 24000 dollar to 48000 dollar in commissions in the first year. Assuming a 20 percent commission rate, how many dollars in sales would u have to generate to earn 64000 dollars annually.

i need to set up an equation for this but i don't know how to .. i need some help

Hi Mike,

Costs have gone up from 2001 to 2008 and the competition is stiffer. I was just offer a sales position at a base salary of $28,000 with a 30% commission rate. My mortgage payments and other expenses mean that I need to earn $70,000 annually so I need to clear $70,000 - $28,000 = $42,000 in commissions. That means I have to sell enough so that 30% of the sales is $42,000, which means

$42,000 = 0.30 × sales, or
sales = $42,000/0.30 = $140,000

Penny

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