Question 898807: Frieda employer offers her family health care. Frieda must contribute 12% of the cost, and her employer will cover the rest. Frieda gets paid on a biweekly basis, and she notices that $88.50 is taken out of each paycheck for her portion of the contribution to the family health care coverage. How much does Frieda's employer contribute for her coverage?
How can you do this in the proportion form because I asked my teacher and she said you could do it in the proportion form as in is over of is\of
Found 2 solutions by Theo, MathTherapy:
Answer by Theo(13342)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! there are a couple of ways to solve this.
she contributed 12% and she pays 88.5
the total cost would have to be 88.5 / .12 = 737.5
this is because you start with .12*x = 88.5 and you divide both sides of this equation by .12 to get x = 88.5/.12 which results in x = 737.5.
her employer is paying the rest, so her employer is paying 737.5 - 88.5 = 649
that's one way to solve it.
another way to solve it is as follows:
she is paying 12% so her employer must be paying 88% because 100% - 12% is equal to 88%
you can now set up a ratio.
.12/88.5 = .88/x
the ratio is saying that 12% is to 88.5 as 88% is to x.
you want to solve for x and you should get 649.
cross multiply to get .12*x = .88*88.5
divide both sides of the equation by .12 to get:
x = (.88*88.5)/.12
solve for x to get x = 649
you get the same answer as you got using the first method.
the second method is the proportion form or the ratio method that i believe your teacher is talking about.
note that all percents are divided by 100 to get their decimal equivalents.
12% of x = .12 * x
this can also be shown as 12% * x = 12% / 100 * x.
the decimal equivalent is the one most often used.
12% is the percent.
.12 is the rate.
Answer by MathTherapy(10552)  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Frieda employer offers her family health care. Frieda must contribute 12% of the cost, and her employer will cover the rest. Frieda gets paid on a biweekly basis, and she notices that $88.50 is taken out of each paycheck for her portion of the contribution to the family health care coverage. How much does Frieda's employer contribute for her coverage?
How can you do this in the proportion form because I asked my teacher and she said you could do it in the proportion form as in is over of is\of
Since she paid $88.50, and this amount represents 12%, then we can say that, if 12% represents $88.50, then the
employer's contribution, or 88% represents what amount?
With A being the amount contributed by her employer, this can be written as:  (the proportion you seek)
.12A = .88(88.5) ------- Cross-multiplying
A, or amount contributed by employer =  , or $
**FYI: The proportion could've also been written as: 
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