Addison earns a fixed hourly rate working as a sales clerk. if she works on a holiday, she earns a different hourly rate than she earns on a regular day. in one week, she earns $188.50 by working 5 hours on a holiday and 16 hours during regular days. a different week, she earns $254.00 by working 8 hours on a holiday and 20 hours during regular days. how much more is addison’s holiday hourly rate than her regular hourly rate?

Be r the regular rate and h the hoiday's rate.

Then you can write this two equations:

From the first statement:

188.50 = 5h + 16r

From the second statement:

254.00 = 8h + 20r.

There you have a system of two independent equations with two variables, which you can solve by several methods.

If you multiply the first by 8 and the second by 5, you get:

40h + 128r = 1508
40h + 100r = 1270

Substract the second equation from the first one:

28r = 238
Divide by 28
r = 238/28 = 8.5

You can use now any of the two original statements to find h

 254.00 = 8h + 20r

8h = 254 -20(8.5) = 84
h = 84/8 = 10.5

Solution:

h - r = 10.50 - 8.50 = 2.00

The holiday hourly rate is $2.00 more than the regular hourly rate.