I'm Much Poorer than Barry Zito

This whole Barry Zito getting too much money thing didn’t really faze me all that much, since some Japanese club is walking around with 51.1 million of Boston’s dollars for essentially doing nothing but stepping aside. And on top of that, I don’t really care what the Giants do with their money. Yawn. But I just checked my last direct deposit of the year, and even with my second job I’m not getting close to $18 million a year. Or half that. So to figure out exactly what percentage of Zito’s new yearly salary I make, I whipped out the calculator and realized I had no clue how to calculate it. So I e-mailed economics genius and famed number cruncher, my brother. I’m a mathematical embarrassment to my family. Read on.

Not Black: Barry Zito is making $18 mil a year. Let’s say, for arguments sake, that I make $40,000 a year. What percentage of his yearly salary is my pay? do i just divide the 40000 by 18mil? I don't even know. Help?

Brother: No, because that would give you 450. Zito is not make 450% more than you are. Consider this. If someone is making 100% of what you are, then you are making 50% of what they are making. Therefore, if someone was making 100% more than you, then they would be making 80,000 a year and you would be making 50% of that.

So, 40,000 goes into 18,000,000 450 times. To make that into a percentage, you have to multiply 450 by 100. You are making %50 percent of that. Therefore, Zito is making 450,000% more than you are. So you are making 225,000% less than him.

That's ridiculous.

Not Black: are you serious??? holy shit. so then how would i reverse that into the statement: I'm not even making ___ percent of $18million?

Brother: How do you reverse that? Are YOU serious? Think about it...if you are making 225,000% less than Barry Zito. Than you are ______% of Zito's salary??

Not Black: Sadly, yes, I'm serious. Please help.

Brother: 1/225,000 of a percent. (Now, that I can calculate)

Officially, if I made and even $40,000 (and I rounded UP, by the way), I'd make 4.4444444444444444444444444444444e-6 percent of Barry Zito’s new yearly salary. Before taxes.

Get me Scott Boras on the phone.

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