Question 186025
First, we need to assign variables for the pay scales. They tell you that you have four consecutive levels and the difference between any two levels is $160. Therefore, your four consecutive pay levels would be:
a
a + 160
a + 320
a + 480
Then, they also tell you that the average of the four employees wages is $1440. To find an average, you need to add all four variables together and divide by 4. So if we add all four of the above variables together, we would get:
4a + 960
Then to find the average, we need to divide that equation by 4. 
4a/4 = a and 960/4=240 
So we are left with the equation
a + 240 = 1440
Then we solve for a and get:
a = 1200 
This is the monthly wages for the first person. To find the highest employee, we use the last equation, which is:
a + 480 and we plug in 1200 for a:
1200 + 480 = 1680
Therefore, the highest paid employee makes $1,680.

Hope this helps! Good luck! Sandy :-)