Wage War
How much should companies pay their employees?
Students will
- Given employment and job-seeker levels for two different wages, write and graph a system of linear equations representing labor supply and demand
- Solve a system of linear equations in order to determine equilibrium wage and employment level
- Discuss the impact of a minimum wage above equilibrium level on the labor market
- Discuss the pros and cons of raising the federal minimum wage
Before you begin
This lesson can be used as an introduction to solving systems of linear equations.Common Core Standards
Content Standards
Mathematical Practices
Shoutouts
PBS NewsHour
Related Lessons
Pyramid of Sleaza
How can you make money in a pyramid scheme? Students learn about how pyramid schemes work (and how they fail), and use geometric sequences to model the exponential growth of a pyramid scheme over time.
Loan Ranger
How much do you really pay when you use a credit card? Students develop an exponential growth model to determine how much an item really ends up costing when purchased on credit.
I Remember
How much can you trust your memory? Students construct and compare linear and exponential models to explore how much a memory degrades each time it's remembered.
iPod dPreciation
How has the iPod depreciated over time? Students compare linear and exponential decay, as well as explore how various products have depreciated and what might account for those differences.
Pounding Headache
How much Tylenol can you safely take? Students use exponential functions and logarithms to explore the risks of acetaminophen toxicity, and discuss what they think drug manufacturers should do to make sure people use their products safely.
Green Acres
How has the urban population changed over time, and will we all eventually live in cities? Students use recursive rules along with linear and exponential models to explore how America's urban areas have been growing over the last 200 years.
Financial Aid
How much more do graduates earn, and is college worth the cost? Students use systems of linear equations to compare different educational options.
Prescripted
How should pharmaceutical companies decide what to develop? In this lesson, students use linear and quadratic functions to explore how much pharmaceutical companies expect to make from different drugs, and discuss ways to incentivize companies to develop medications that are more valuable to society.
You're So Fined
How hard is it to pay off municipal fines? Students use linear equations and solve linear systems to examine what happens when people are unable to pay small municipal fines. They also discuss what can happen to the most financially vulnerable citizens when cities rely heavily on fines for revenue.
House of Pain
Why are so many Americans dying from opiate overdoses? Students use exponential decay and rational functions to understand why addicted patients seek more and stronger opioids to alleviate their pain.
XBOX Xponential
How have video game console speeds changed over time? Students write an exponential function based on the Atari 2600 and Moore's Law, and see whether the model was correct for subsequent video game consoles.
Pandemic
Why hasn't everyone already died of a contagion? And, if vampires exist, shouldn't we all be sucking blood by now? Students model the exponential growth of a contagion and use logarithms and finite geometric series to determine the time needed for a disease to infect the entire population.
Billions & Billions
How has the human population changed over time? Students develop exponential models to analyze human population growth and explore the impact this growth will have in areas around the world.
