Shantel offers online tutorial services. She charges $25.00 an hour per student. Her budget tracker reflects a total of $3,200.00 monthly expenses. How many hours must she work each month to earn a monthly profit of at least $600.00?

1 answer

To determine how many hours Shantel must work to earn a monthly profit of at least $600.00, we can set up the following equations based on her earnings, expenses, and desired profit.

  1. Total earnings from tutoring: \[ \text{Total Earnings} = \text{Hourly Rate} \times \text{Hours Worked} \] Given her hourly rate is $25.00, if \( h \) is the number of hours she works, her total earnings can be expressed as: \[ \text{Total Earnings} = 25h \]

  2. Profit calculation: Profit is calculated by subtracting her monthly expenses from her total earnings: \[ \text{Profit} = \text{Total Earnings} - \text{Expenses} \] Here, her expenses are $3,200. Thus, the profit equation becomes: \[ \text{Profit} = 25h - 3200 \]

  3. Setting up the inequality for desired profit: We want her profit to be at least $600. Therefore, we set up the inequality: \[ 25h - 3200 \geq 600 \]

  4. Solving the inequality: Start by isolating \( 25h \): \[ 25h \geq 600 + 3200 \] \[ 25h \geq 3800 \] Now, divide both sides by 25 to solve for \( h \): \[ h \geq \frac{3800}{25} \] \[ h \geq 152 \]

Thus, Shantel must work at least 152 hours per month to earn a monthly profit of at least $600.00.