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 $4,500 per month or $1,125
per week.