# $1,000 per year or $300 every six months? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 18, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-000-per-year-or-300-every-six-months/663869 "2013-07-18T18:22:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-000-per-year-or-300-every-six-months/663869/61 "2013-07-24T00:50:05Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Personally, I think you are being redundant. If it’s a $300/six months raise, that tells me you are getting $300 every six months. How often should that be applied except every 6 months? Applying it annually wouldn’t make sense, that would be a $600 annual raise. As I already said, the context was set in the previous sentence: “Suppose you make $10,000 a year”. So we’re talking about annual salary. If you’re going to change that context, then you need to give the reader a clue that you’re doing so. Especially in a “puzzle” like this. That’s not redundant, it’s required for clarity. > [@learjeff](#): > > I remember a number of buildings in Wellington NZ where the ground floor was on the 5th floor on one side, […] Soooo… You were looking for the answer “four”? 😕 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jamicat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-000-per-year-or-300-every-six-months/663869/62 "2013-07-24T02:47:46Z")
Year 1) 5000/26 weeks = 193 per week 5300/26 weeks = 204 per week =10300 10000/52 weeks = 193 per week * * * Year 2) 5600/26 weeks = 216 per week 5900/26 weeks = 227 per week =11500 11000/52 weeks = 212 * * * I hate math…☹ ---
**Author:** ![Cmoore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Cmoore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmoore)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-000-per-year-or-300-every-six-months/663869/63 "2013-07-25T12:56:11Z")
> [@Joey\_Tightlips](#): > > This has me baffled. Getting passed the semantics and assuming the question is as Marilyn interpereted it, I still don’t understand it. Like the OP, my mind wants to say that $300 + $300 is a yearly increase of $600, but from looking at the math I can see that it’s really $1200. My question is WHY? Is there some simple explanation \*in english \*that will enable me to wrap my feeble mind around this? Where is that extra “times 2” coming from? The people arguing that the $300 is better have doubled the $300 twice. Once because they say you’ll get it twice a year and another time because in their minds the $300 is an increase in your semiannual pay rate so to convert it into your annual pay rate you need to double it. The people arguing against this (myself included) are pointing out that the question never says the $300 is an increase in your semiannual pay rate or that the $1000 is an increase in your annual pay rate. But it’s sensible to assume they both mean annual pay rate (salary) because that’s how pay is measured. ---
**Author:** ![Cerealbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Cerealbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerealbox)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-000-per-year-or-300-every-six-months/663869/64 "2013-07-28T19:48:42Z")
I agree that a $300 semiannual raise is better than an annual $1,000 dollar raise. I sat down and did all the calculations myself exactly as the word problem specified and indeed got two very different answers. Maybe the question could be worded differently or better, but that’s not what I want to ask about. What I want to know is how in the hell the semiannual raise winds up being higher than the annual raise! It does, I tried it. But I can’t for the life of me figure out why 300 dollars twice a year doesn’t add up to 600 dollars a year. There’s not a fraction in there. It’s not a 10% raise or anything. I feel really dumb. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-000-per-year-or-300-every-six-months/663869/65 "2013-07-29T01:11:54Z")
Because the one figure is $1000 per year per year and the other is $300 per half-year per half-year. Or $500 per half-year per year versus $300 per half-year per half-year. Or $500 per half-year per year versus $600 per half-year per year. The last numbers are the only ones that can be legitimately compared. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-000-per-year-or-300-every-six-months/663869.md?page=3)