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Question

A town's total allowance for firefighter's wages and benefits in a new budget is $600,000. If wages are calculated at $40,000 per firefighter and benefits at $20,000 per firefighter, write an equation whose solution is the number of firefighters the town can employ if they spend their whole budget. Let x represent the number of fire fighters they higher.

Answer 1

To determine the number of firefighters the town can employ within the budget, we can create an equation based on the total costs of wages and benefits.

The total cost for one firefighter includes both wages and benefits:

• Wages per firefighter = $40,000
• Benefits per firefighter = $20,000

Therefore, the total cost per firefighter is: \[ \text{Total cost per firefighter} = \text{Wages} + \text{Benefits} = 40,000 + 20,000 = 60,000 \]

Let \( x \) represent the number of firefighters. The total cost for \( x \) firefighters is: \[ 60,000x \]

The equation that represents the town's total allowance for firefighter's wages and benefits is: \[ 60,000x = 600,000 \]

This is the equation you are looking for.