Essentials of Mathematics 10 -
Wages, Salaries and Expenses

This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will solve problems involving wage, salaries and expenses

It is expected that students will:

• calculate hours worked and gross pay
• calculate net income using deduction tables (focus on weekly) with different pay periods
• calculate changes in income
• develop a budget that matches predicted income

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

This unit may be immediately applicable for students holding part-time jobs. The ability to calculate gross pay, net pay, and percentage changes in income are important skills for everyone.

• Provide students with a range of hourly pay rates that they might expect to earn upon reaching their educational goals. Have them calculate monthly gross pay for several of the given rates.
• Ask students to list ways in which their incomes might change and to show how the changes would affect their monthly gross pay.
• Have students select two monthly incomes, one higher and one lower, then use deduction tables to find the take-home pay for each income level.
• Using newspaper classified ads for data on rent or leasing costs, have student produce appropriate monthly and/or yearly budgets for a variety of incomes.
• Set up a mock payroll for students, giving each student a weekly wage. Charge weekly expenses for missed time, desk rental, calculator or other equipment rental, and services such as sharpening pencils. Have students look up payroll deductions (i.e., taxes, EI, CPP) in tables to determine their net pay. Students record gross pay, deduction calculations, and net pay in deposit books. Students write "cheques" for the weekly expenses, deducting the cheque amount from their cumulative pay totals. At appropriate intervals, give students a pay raise and have them calculate the percentage increase in dollars.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Understanding how income and expenses are used to develop budgets is a key life skill. Assessment should focus on students’ understanding of the entire process.

Observe

• Have students present a budget and note to what extent they are able to:
  • justify the inclusion of budget items (expenses)
  • describe how they went about selecting the appropriate weighting of the items
  • present their data
• As students work on their net pay, note to what extent they
  • choose the appropriate table
  • accurately subtract the deductions from the gross pay
  • present their data

Collect

• On selected problems, have students explain by annotation how they filled in given tables.
• Collect student deposit books and check for accuracy, neatness, and completeness.

Self-Assessment

• Provide a pay stub which included deductions and have students comment on whether deduction calculations are reasonable.

RECOMMENDED LEARNING RESOURCES

Comprehensive learning resources for this course are currently under development. As an interim measure, schools are encouraged to use the teacher-developed learning resources distributed to schools (student and teacher resources). Please note that the student materials require photocopying for student use.

Software

• Green Globs & Graphing Equations

© 2000 Copyright. All Rights Reserved. Curriculum Branch.
Maintained by: Mathematics Coordinator
Revised: November 22, 2000

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