Worksheet Grade 6 Social Studies & Civics

Is Lindmoor's Water Bill Affordable? A Percent Worksheet

A grade 6 economics worksheet where students find three fictional families' water bills as a percent of income and test each against a 4.5 percent high-burden guideline.

Grade: Grade 6
Subject: Social Studies & Civics
Material: Worksheet
Time: 30 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

6.RP.A.3 Common Core Math

Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations, including finding a percent of a quantity and converting measurement units.

How this material aligns: Students find each family's yearly bill as a percent of yearly income, using the percent reasoning from a ratio that this standard requires.

All materials for 6.RP.A.3 →

D2.Eco.2.6-8 C3 Framework

Evaluate alternative approaches or solutions to current economic issues in terms of benefits and costs for different groups and society as a whole.

How this material aligns: Students weigh how the same water bill affects families with different incomes, evaluating an affordability guideline in terms of costs for different groups.

All materials for D2.Eco.2.6-8 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-23.

Objectives

Students will calculate a water bill as a percent of a family's yearly income.
Students will compare each result to the 4.5 percent high-burden guideline and explain why the same bill is harder for lower incomes.

Vocabulary

Key words: affordability, income, percent, high burden, utility

Teacher overview

A water bill can feel small to one family and heavy to another, even when the bill is the same. To measure this, planners look at the bill as a percent of a family's income. This worksheet uses three fictional families in one town. Students find each family's bill as a percent of income, then check it against a common guideline. The guideline is a real one: a widely used rule of thumb treats water and sewer costs above about 4.5 percent of income as a high burden. It comes from adding two Environmental Protection Agency benchmarks, 2.5 percent for drinking water and 2 percent for wastewater, although the agency has no single official cutoff.

Is Lindmoor's Water Bill Affordable? A Percent Worksheet — Grade 6 Social Studies & Civics

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Three families live in the fictional town of Lindmoor. The table shows each family's yearly income and their yearly water and sewer bill. Use the table to answer the questions. To find a bill as a percent of income, divide the bill by the income, then multiply by 100.

Family	Yearly income	Yearly water and sewer bill
Reed	$20,000	$1,000
Sato	$50,000	$1,000
Voss	$16,000	$960

Find the Reed family's bill as a percent of their income.
A bill above 4.5 percent of income counts as a high burden. Is the Reed family above or below that line?
Find the Sato family's bill as a percent of their income.
Is the Sato family's bill a high burden by the 4.5 percent guideline?
Find the Voss family's bill as a percent of their income.
Put the three families in order, from the smallest bill-to-income percent to the largest.
The Reed and Sato families both pay a $1,000 bill. Explain why that same bill is harder for the Reed family.
The town raises every bill by $100 a year. The Reed family's new bill is $1,100 on the same $20,000 income. Find the new percent.
After that increase, how many percentage points above the 4.5 percent line is the Reed family?
Name one thing the town could do to help families that are above the 4.5 percent high-burden line.

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: 5%. In this fictional scenario, $1,000 divided by $20,000 equals 0.05, which is 5 percent.
Answer: Above. The Reed family's 5 percent is above the 4.5 percent high-burden line.
Answer: 2%. The Sato family's $1,000 divided by $50,000 equals 0.02, which is 2 percent.
Answer: No. The Sato family's 2 percent is below the 4.5 percent guideline, so it is not a high burden.
Answer: 6%. The Voss family's $960 divided by $16,000 equals 0.06, which is 6 percent.
Answer: Sato, Reed, Voss. The order from smallest to largest is Sato at 2 percent, Reed at 5 percent, then Voss at 6 percent.
Answer: The same $1,000 bill takes a bigger share of the Reed family's smaller income, so it leaves them less money for other needs than it leaves the Sato family.
Answer: 5.5%. The new bill of $1,100 divided by $20,000 equals 0.055, which is 5.5 percent.
Answer: 1 percentage point. The Reed family's new 5.5 percent is 5.5 minus 4.5, which is 1 percentage point above the line.
Answer: The town could offer a discount or bill-assistance program for lower-income families, so their share of income spent on water drops back below the high-burden line.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the division for item 1 already set up from the table, so they focus on turning the decimal into a percent. Allow a calculator, and provide a number line marked at 4.5 percent for the compare questions.

Extension

Ask students to invent a fourth Lindmoor family whose bill lands exactly on the 4.5 percent line. They must choose a yearly income and a bill that fit, then show the division that proves the family sits right at the guideline.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "income," "bill," "percent," and "burden" with a simple picture of a coin split into parts. Provide a sentence frame: "The ___ family spends ___ percent of income, which is above or below the line." Allow item 7 and item 10 to be answered in short phrases.