Weekend Café Pay: Choosing Between Two Offers
Aoife is choosing between two weekend jobs to save for a school trip. Café A offers a six-hour Saturday shift at €12.50 per hour. Any hours beyond six in a day are paid at time-and-a-half, but the shift is never longer than six hours. Café A also deducts 4% of gross pay into a staff uniform fund. It is a 15-minute walk from home. Café B offers an eight-hour Saturday shift at €11.80 per hour, with no uniform deduction. It pays a travel allowance of €9 per shift, but Aoife would need two bus fares of €2.20 each way. She can work one Saturday shift per week for six weeks. The trip costs €450, and she currently has no savings. She wants to know which job gives her more spendable money after travel and deductions, and whether either job lets her reach her target. Both cafés pay exactly for the hours worked, with no other deductions.
1. Calculate Aoife's spendable income from one Saturday shift at each café. Show all deductions and travel costs.
Read the worked answer
Café A
Gross pay: 6 × €12.50 = €75.00.
No overtime is worked because the shift is exactly six hours.
Uniform deduction: 4% of €75.00 = 0.04 × 75 = €3.00.
Travel cost: €0 because Aoife walks.
Spendable income = 75.00 − 3.00 = €72.00.
Café B
Gross pay: 8 × €11.80 = €94.40.
Bus fares: two fares of €2.20 each way means €4.40 each way. Return journey = 2 × €4.40 = €8.80.
Travel allowance is €9.00, so net travel position = 9.00 − 8.80 = +€0.20.
Spendable income = 94.40 + 0.20 = €94.60.
Café B leaves Aoife €22.60 more per shift.
2. Over six weeks, how much more spendable income does the better-paying café provide? Does Aoife reach her €450 target?
Read the worked answer
Café A over six weeks: 6 × €72.00 = €432.00.
Café B over six weeks: 6 × €94.60 = €567.60.
Difference: 567.60 − 432.00 = €135.60 in favour of Café B.
Target check:
- Café A gives €432.00, which is €450 − €432 = €18 short.
- Café B gives €567.60, which is €567.60 − €450 = €117.60 above the target.
So Café B is the better choice: it provides more spendable income each week and is the only one of the two that lets Aoife reach €450 within six weeks.