Hiring Help

Businesses incur many costs.

Can you think of some advantages of hiring specialized professionals to perform certain tasks?

Lesson Objective

Calculate the total building maintenance charge.

Content Vocabulary

labor chargelabor charge

The cost of paying people to do a job, usually calculated on an hourly basis for each service person.

labor charge

The cost of paying people to do a job, usually calculated on an hourly basis for each service person.

Central Law Offices hired Commercial Painting Service to paint its offices. Four painters worked 23 hours each to complete the job. The regular hourly rate for each painter is $29.00. All work was done on weekends, so the painters were paid time and a half. The painters used 42 gallons of paint, for which they charged $19.75 per gallon.

What was the total charge for painting the offices?

Example 1Example 1

Find the labor charge.

($29.00 × 1.5) × 23 hours × 4 = $4,002.00

Example 1 Answer: Example 1 Answer: Step 1Step 1

Find the materials charge.

42 × $19.75 = $829.50

Example 1 Answer: Example 1 Answer: Step 2Step 2

Find the total charge.

Labor Charge + Materials Charge

$4,002.00 + $829.50 = $4,831.50

Example 1 Answer: Example 1 Answer: Step 3Step 3

Joe Medeiros hired a roofing company to roof his house.

The roofing company has 4 workers who earn $16 per hour each to do the job.

Each worker spent 14 hours on the job. The materials charge was $2,005.

Find the total charge.

Practice 1Practice 1

$2,901

Practice 1 AnswerPractice 1 Answer

Moon Cleaning cleans and maintains an office area that is 50 feet by 62 feet.

The contract calls for $5.25 per square foot annually.

What is the monthly charge?

Practice 2Practice 2

$1,356.25

Practice 2 AnswerPractice 2 Answer