Worksheet Grade 7 Careers & CTE

Cost, Pay, and Percent: Comparing Water-Career Training Paths

A grade 7 careers worksheet where students use percent to compare the up-front cost of three water-sector training paths against real operator pay data.

Grade: Grade 7
Subject: Careers & CTE
Material: Worksheet
Time: 30 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: Calculator

Standards

7.RP.A.3 Common Core Math

Use proportional relationships to solve multistep ratio and percent problems. Examples: simple interest, tax, markups and markdowns, gratuities and commissions, fees, percent increase and decrease, percent error.

How this material aligns: Items 1 through 7 have students compute percents of a pay figure and percent increases between pay levels, the multistep percent reasoning this standard requires.

All materials for 7.RP.A.3 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-17.

Objectives

Students will calculate what percent one amount is of another using real pay figures.
Students will compute percent increases between pay levels and interpret the results.

Vocabulary

Key words: percent increase, median, percentile

Teacher overview

Choosing a training path means weighing what it costs now against what it can pay later. This worksheet gives students real operator pay data and three fictional training costs, then uses percent to compare them. A common error to watch for is dividing by the wrong number in a percent-increase problem; students should divide the change by the original amount, not by the new one.

Cost, Pay, and Percent: Comparing Water-Career Training Paths — Grade 7 Careers & CTE

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Suppose Jordan is a fictional grade 7 student comparing three water-career training paths. Use these numbers for every item. The three training costs are made up for this worksheet; the pay figures are real, and they describe treatment plant operators specifically.

Operator median pay: $60,020 per year. The lowest-paid tenth earn less than $39,110, and the top tenth earn over $91,060.
Path A: an operator licensing course, cost $1,500.
Path B: a two-year associate degree, cost $8,000.
Path C: a four-year degree, cost $40,000.

Round each percent to the nearest whole percent. Use the operator median as the benchmark salary.

Path A costs $1,500. What percent of the operator median pay of $60,020 is that cost?
Path B costs $8,000. What percent of $60,020 is that cost?
Path C costs $40,000. What percent of $60,020 is that cost?
The median pay is $60,020 and the 10th percentile is $39,110. How many more dollars per year is the median than the 10th percentile?
Using your answer to item 4, what is the percent increase from the 10th percentile to the median?
The 90th percentile is $91,060. How many more dollars per year is that than the median of $60,020?
Using your answer to item 6, what is the percent increase from the median to the 90th percentile?
Jordan sees that Path C costs the most up front. Explain why a higher up-front cost is not automatically the wrong choice, using the pay range in your answer.
A friend tells Jordan that the cheapest training is always the smartest choice. Explain why that claim is too simple, using at least two numbers from this worksheet.
Suppose Jordan pays off Path B's $8,000 by setting aside 5 percent of one year's median pay. How many dollars is 5 percent of $60,020?

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key

Answer: 2 percent. $1,500 ÷ $60,020 = 0.02499, and 0.02499 × 100 ≈ 2.499, which rounds to 2 percent.
Answer: 13 percent. $8,000 ÷ $60,020 = 0.1333, and 0.1333 × 100 ≈ 13.3, which rounds to 13 percent.
Answer: 67 percent. $40,000 ÷ $60,020 = 0.6664, and 0.6664 × 100 ≈ 66.6, which rounds to 67 percent.
Answer: 20,910 dollars. $60,020 − $39,110 = 20,910 dollars per year.
Answer: 53 percent. 20,910 ÷ 39,110 = 0.5346, and 0.5346 × 100 ≈ 53.46, which rounds to 53 percent.
Answer: 31,040 dollars. $91,060 − $60,020 = 31,040 dollars per year.
Answer: 52 percent. 31,040 ÷ 60,020 = 0.5172, and 0.5172 × 100 ≈ 51.7, which rounds to 52 percent.
Answer: Accept reasoning that a higher up-front cost can lead to a role that earns more over a career, so the pay range (up to over $91,060) can make a costlier path worth it. The point is that cost alone does not decide value.
Answer: Accept answers using at least two numbers, such as noting that Path A costs about 2 percent of median pay and Path C about 67 percent, yet the paths lead to different kinds of water jobs, and this worksheet gives pay only for operators, so cost alone cannot show which path is the better choice.
Answer: 3,001 dollars. 5 percent of $60,020 is 0.05 × 60,020 = 3,001 dollars.

Differentiation

Support

Provide the subtraction results for items 4 and 6 already computed, so students focus on setting up the percent. Give a worked example with different numbers before item 1.

Extension

Ask students to find how many years of setting aside 5 percent of the median pay it would take to fully cover Path C's cost, showing their reasoning.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "median," "percentile," and "percent increase" with a simple labeled number line. Provide a sentence frame for items 8 and 9: "A higher cost can be worth it because ___."