need help

[jen15]

An employee, who sells advertising time for independent
television stations, is paid a salary of $2,500 per month. For short
commercials (less than 30 seconds), the employee receives no commissions. For
long commercials (30 seconds or longer), the employee receives a 1/2%
commission. Compute the employee’s total pay for a month in which the employee
sold $388,500 worth of time for short commercials, and $214,000 worth of time
for long commercials.

 

[JeffM]

[Jeff: I'm fuming mad at the teacher who wrote that up!!
what a STOOPID way to teach a kid how to get 1/2% of something.]

As always, we lack the context in which the problem is set. If its purpose is to teach the basics about percentages, it is an awful problem because it mixes in percentages with absolute numbers. If, on the other hand, its purpose is to teach how to extract a mathematical formula from a mess of verbiage and assumes a prior understanding of fractional percentages, it seems to me fine. The OP did not make clear what part of the problem was a bafflement so it is hard to tell whether or not the teacher deserves execution.