Real-Life Math
You are a semiconductor technician working for a company that makes
microchips. You work in a semiconductor fabrication facility, or "fab." Your
official job title is equipment technician.
Your job is a little different
from most of the other technicians who work at the fab. For one thing, you
do not work in the area where the microchips are produced. Instead, you work
in an advanced research laboratory.
Your job is to test equipment after
engineers have experimented with its design. You want to see if the changes
they have made are workable.
You are constantly troubleshooting: testing
all the parts of the equipment for possible malfunctions, performing maintenance,
fixing the equipment when necessary and reporting your findings
to the engineers.
While the production area has always operated on
a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week schedule, the research lab where you work
has only been open from Monday to Friday. However, the company has recently
announced that they also want the lab to run on a full-time schedule.
Your
supervisor approaches you and wants to know if you would be willing to work
on weekends.
It sounds like a good deal. In the first place, the company
is offering a $1,500 "bonus" for everyone who agrees to work weekends. Second,
the hours that you work are reduced.
In addition to putting in a 12-hour
shift on both Saturday and Sunday, you are required to work one other eight-hour
shift sometime during the month. For this, you will get paid the equivalent
of a regular 37.5-hour week.
Finally, you will receive shift premiums:
10 percent on Saturday and 15 percent on Sunday.
It sounds tempting.
But before you give up your weekends, you want to calculate exactly how much
more money you will be making. Also, you want to figure out the total percentage
by which your hours are reduced.
Your current salary is $2,500 per
month or $625 per week.