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Assume the number of work hours per year is 12 (months) x 4 (weeks per month -- for the purposes of this problem, assume 4 weeks per month) x 40 (hours per week) = 1920 hours per year.

Furthermore, assume a goal of incentivizing companies to hire a contractor for as many possible hours per week for as many possible months.

If a contractor is hired for 12 months at 40 hours a week, a multiplier of 1 is applied to a set hourly rate (e.g. 100 per hour x 1 = $100).

The minimum number of months a contractor can be hired is 1 month at 5 hours a week. The multiplier for that is 2 (e.g. 100 per hour x 2 = $200).

What formula can be used to compute this multiplier? What should the multiplier be if the contractor is hired for 6 months at 20 hours a week? Or for 3 months at 15 hours a week?

Trying to find a formula that would apply to 1 (month) and 5 (hours a week) to equal 2 (multiplier) and use that same formula that would apply to 12 (months) and 40 (hours a week) to equal 1 (multiplier).

UPDATE: I think 25 hours (halfway between 10 and 40) at 7 months (halfway between 1 and 12) would probably yield a 1.5 multiplier.

MathNewbie
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  • These multipliers seems rather arbitrary and I cannot immediately see a reason for the multiplier of 2 in the case that you provided ... Are these numbers taken from a real company? Or is this a math book example? – Matti P. Sep 05 '18 at 13:19
  • Not from a real company. Not a math book example. – MathNewbie Sep 05 '18 at 13:20
  • how many hours would be in a month if contractor is working 5 hours a week? Should it be 20? A month is not exactly 4 weeks. – Vasili Sep 05 '18 at 13:21
  • Do you know why this multiplier is added? – Matti P. Sep 05 '18 at 13:21
  • The multiplier seems to be chosen at will. Is the goal of the multiplier to assess the time? Since it seems you have a fixed rate of 100 dollars per hour. How do you determine your multiplier of 2? – Jan Sep 05 '18 at 13:21
  • Just trying to come up with a logical pay scale. The 2 multiplier for 1 month at 5 hours per week are givens (and maybe a bit arbitrary). The idea is that there is an incentive to hire the contractor for more hours per week and for more months. – MathNewbie Sep 05 '18 at 13:23
  • For the purposes of this problem, a month is 4 weeks. – MathNewbie Sep 05 '18 at 13:23

1 Answers1

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Assuming you want a linear relationship between hours worked and multiplier, you have two data points: $(20,2)$ and $(480,1)$. The line that goes thru these two points is defined by this equation: $m=-h/460+2\frac{1}{23}$ where $m$ is multiplier and $h$ is the number of hours.

Vasili
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  • Why aren't the months included in the formula? It's a variable. – MathNewbie Sep 05 '18 at 14:46
  • And how did you come up with $2\frac{1}{23}$? – MathNewbie Sep 05 '18 at 14:48
  • @MathNewbie: we cannot mix months and hours, we need to use the same units. What I did is I calculated equation of a line that goes thru 2 data points. See here: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Two-PointForm.html Plug in $h=20$ and you'll get $m=2$, plug in $h=480$ and you'll get $m=1$ – Vasili Sep 05 '18 at 14:53
  • @MathNewbie: Also, number of months is misleading if a contractor can work different number of hours per week. – Vasili Sep 05 '18 at 15:00
  • Is that a negative sign in front of the h? Math doesn't seem to work for me. Also, the contractor won't work a different number of hours per week; it would be fixed for the term of the contract. – MathNewbie Sep 05 '18 at 23:36
  • I put 480 and got a negative number, and not a 1. I guess I don't understand how to use your formula: https://www.google.com/search?q=−480%2F(460%2B(2%2B1%2F23)) – MathNewbie Sep 06 '18 at 04:05