How many hours of work? A 6th grade prices and wages activity
What it is: a 6th grade math activity where students turn prices into hours of work. Using the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and two other practice wages, they divide each price by the wage to see how long a worker would need to work to buy it, which makes opportunity cost and the value of time concrete.
Time: about 30 minutes. Grade: 6th grade.
Materials: price cards for 6 things a 6th grader might want (headphones $29, a bike $145, a concert ticket $58, a video game $70, a jacket $45, a used phone $120), calculators and a table with columns for three wages: $7.25, $12.00 and $18.00 an hour.
- Share that the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and that many states set a higher one.
- Model one: headphones cost $29, and 29 divided by 7.25 is 4 hours of work.
- Pairs fill in the table for all 6 items at all 3 wages, rounding to the nearest tenth of an hour.
- Ask: "Which item costs the most hours at $7.25? Does that change how you feel about it?"
- Point out that some of each paycheck goes to taxes, so the real number of hours is a little higher than the table shows.
- Each pair picks one item and writes: "It is worth ___ hours of my work because ___," or "It is not worth it because ___."
Differentiation: students who need support use only the $12.00 wage. Students who are ready take out Social Security (6.2 percent) and Medicare (1.45 percent) before dividing. English learners can use the words wage, hour and worth.
Quick check: ask: at $12 an hour, how many hours of work is a $60 item?
Save this activity to your library so it is ready when you need it.
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About this resource
- Shared by
- @UpOnlyLearning · Curriculum team
- Posted
- Oct 31, 2026
- Type
- Lesson plan
- Grade
- Grades 6–8
- Subject
- Math, Life skills & money
- Language
- English
- License
- Free for classroom, co-op and tutoring use. Please don't resell.