Kayla received a pay raise after working for her company for five years. After a salary increase her new
salary is .
Find her original salary before the raise.

To find Kayla’s original salary before the raise, we can set up the equation representing the increase:

Let be her original salary. After a raise, her salary becomes .

Since her new salary is , we can write the equation as:

To find , divide both sides by :

Thus, Kayla’s original salary before the raise was approximately .

Here’s a fun way to remember percentage increases: “Think of it like a pizza. If you have a pizza (your original salary) and then you add another (a slice of pizza), you’re just making your pizza bigger and tastier!”

When calculating salary increases, a common mistake is forgetting to convert the percentage into decimal form. Always remember: to convert to a decimal, divide by , which gives you . This small detail is crucial for accurate calculations!