Pham can work as many or as few hours as she wants at the co

Pham can work as many or as few hours as she wants at the college bookstore for $9 per hour But due to her hectic schedule she has just 15 hours per week that she can spend working at either the bookstore or at other potential jobs One potential job. at a cafe. will pay her S12 per hour for up to 6 hours per week She has another job otter at a garage that will pay her $10 an hour for up to 5 hours per week And she has a potential job at a daycare center that will pay her $8 50 per hour for as many hours as she can work If her goal is to maximize the amount of money she can make each week how many hours will she work at the bookstore?

Solution

Pham will choose to work at the bookstore as long as the wage rate at the bookstore exceeds her other possibilities. But, if some other job gives a higher wage rate she will choose working there. She will work till her total time allotment (for work) is over. For example, if Pham only has 15 hours per week that she can work and the wage rate at the bookstore is $9 per hour. She can also use her time working at a café that will give her $12 per hour for up to 6 hours per week, at a garage that will give her $10 an hour for up to 5 hours per week, and at a daycare center that will pay her $8.50 per hour for as many hours as she can work

She will choose to work at the café for the full 6 hours as the wage rate at the café is $12 per hour, which is greater than the wage rate at the bookstore of $9. This leaves her with 9 hours of work time . Then, she will choose to work at the garage for the   5 hours as the wage rate here is $10, which again is greater than the bookstore wage rate $9. After this decision she only has 4 hours of work time remaining. She will choose to work these last 4 hours at the bookstore because the bookstore wage rate of $9 exceeds the daycare center wage rate of $8.50