Question

You are paid $10.65/hr. Your deductions are FICA (7.65%), federal tax withholding (9.9%), and state tax withholding (7.35%). Your housing and fixed expenses are $493.68/month. How many hours per month must you work to be sure those expenses are paid?

Answer 1

You must work about 62 hours.

The total percent that you pay in taxes is 24.9%.

That means that you keep 75.1% of the money that you earn. We can write the following equation to determine the number of hours, h, that it will take to earn 493.68.

0.751(10.65)h = 493.68

Just divide by 0.751 and 10.65 and you will get the number of hours needed.