This puzzle celebrates our 10-puzzle points winner going under the code name "Jerome's wife" but the Canadian authorities revealed to me that her real name is Mary.
Expecting the approaching end-of-the-world and half-wishing and half-fearing that the company she is working for will be wiped away from Earth, Mary decided to ask for her December salary up-front. She usually gets $10,000 monthly. After some negotiations the accountant agreed to pay her $7,000 for the first three weeks of December stating that she also already got the Holiday bonus and together this will be a fair pay for three weeks out of four proportionally.
The question is what is Mary's Holiday bonus?
Submit your answer anytime up until the dooms day, Friday the 21st.
End of the world image by Anthony Citrano, distributed under CCL.
Expecting the approaching end-of-the-world and half-wishing and half-fearing that the company she is working for will be wiped away from Earth, Mary decided to ask for her December salary up-front. She usually gets $10,000 monthly. After some negotiations the accountant agreed to pay her $7,000 for the first three weeks of December stating that she also already got the Holiday bonus and together this will be a fair pay for three weeks out of four proportionally.
The question is what is Mary's Holiday bonus?
Submit your answer anytime up until the dooms day, Friday the 21st.
End of the world image by Anthony Citrano, distributed under CCL.
9 comments:
Mary, who foolishly believes that the World might end on the 21st of Dec. 2012 wants to make sure she does so in style with every kind of chocolate and twinkie available - heck with the mountain in France - she can create a vortex at home. So begging the accountant to give her her months salary in advance she has to be satisfied with the 3 weeks that the accountant decides to grant her. The $7,000 which he grants her is short $500. Since she gets $2,500 a week, but the last week of the month is not to be forwarded as the rest, the bonus cannot be $500 because the bonus would span the entire month, the complete 4 weeks and the $500 lacking is really part of her regular pay. The accountant failed to pay her for a full 3 weeks pay. Claiming that the amount granted $7,000 was fair pay for 3 weeks. Mary should keep a sharp look out that the accountant has not hired several trucks to back up to the Hostess Twinkie factory on the 21st,using her holiday bonus, which with the information given, cannot be determined.
The accountant clawed by 2500 dollars because Mary was not going to work the last week of December. He clawed back an additional 500 dollars because did was overpaid that much for her bonus. The bonus clawback represent 1/4 of the total of the bonus (she apparently earned the other 1500 for the 3 week period).
Her bonus could be calculated like this.
1/4 bonus = 500 dollars
bonus = 500 * 4 = 2000.
I'll go for $500, figuring the accountant is subtracting that from 3/4 of her monthly salary.
Stingy bonus though, if I'm right, 1/20 of her monthly salary or maybe one day's pay. Still it's better than any Christmas bonus I ever got (zero).
Actually Dec. has 31 days or 3 more days than 4 weeks. The puzzle says 4 weeks so I will go with that and it is easier to work with.It said she will be paid for 3 of 4 weeks. 3/4 of $10,000 is $7500. She will get paid $7000. $7500 minus $700 is $500 bonus.
Gurubandhu
Mary's holiday bonus was $500.00. Three weeks pay should be $7,500.00, less $7,000.00 is $500.00.
This is my revised answer of how much the total bonus Mary would have received in December. The answer is $2000. If she works 3 full weeks and should have received $7500 and the accountant told her she was getting $7000 instead of $7500 because she had already been paid her December bonus. The lacking $500 from the $7500 is the clue to how much the bonus should have been (weekly) It can be deducted then that the $500 the accountant witheld was how much one week's worth of bonus would have been; so how much is 4 weeks worth of bonus?... and the answer is $2000. So all in all she received $1500 in bonus, but the question asked how much the total month's bonus would have been.
At 10000 monthly, and assuming a month consists of four weeks, a fair pay for three weeks is 7500. This means the bonus comes to 500.
Mary gets $10,000 monthly (assume that's 4 weeks).
In December, she also gets a bonus (B), so her total compensation in December is $10,000 + B.
She has already gotten her bonus, and agrees that the bonus plus $7,000 will be fair for 3 weeks.
So, what she gets for 3 weeks is 7000 + B; what she gets for four weeks is 10000 + B.
If I divide her three-week compensation by three (gives me one-week compensation) and multiply it by four (turns one-week comp into four-week, or monthly comp), it should equal her monthly compensation. So:
4 * ((7000 + B)/3) = 10000 + B
(28000 + 4B) / 3 = 10000 + B
28000 + 4B = 30000 + 3B
28000 + B = 30000
B = 2000
Her Holiday Bonus is $2,000.
So far the day looks good. Given that it is already tomorrow in some parts of the world we can be optimistic. Perhaps Mary can start thinking how to spend her $2,000 Holiday bonus.
Even the greatest from you guys made some mistakes in Mary's bonus. Dennis and Jerome explained it well, and Jerome even offered two solutions. Check them above.
And here is my math that is quite similar to Denise's. Hopefully formatting will work:
10,000 + B 4
----------- = -------
7,000 + B 3
30,000 + 3B = 28,000 + 4B
2,000 = B
Treat yourself to something special today! Meanwhile, a puzzle point for everyone who dared to write.
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