A labourer is engaged for 20 days on the condition that he will receive Rs280 for each day he works and he will be fined Rs60 for each day he is absent. If he receives Rs2540 in all, for how many days he remained absent?

Hint – In order to solve this problem we have to assume a variable for the number of days he is present then make an equation according to the condition given in the question then by solving a linear equation get the number of days for which he is absent.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Let the number of days the labourer is present be x.
Then the number of days he is absent will be 20 – x.
It is given that for the day he worked he got Rs.280 and when he is absent he has to pay Rs.60.
It is also given that the number of days he was engaged is 20 and in 20 days he has earned Rs.2540.
So, the equation can be made from the above statements can be:
280x - (20 - x)60 = 2540
On solving we get,
280x – 1200 + 60x = 2540
340x = 3740
 x = 11
Hence, the labourer was present for 11 days.
Then the number of days he was absent is 20 – 11 = 9.
The labourer was absent for 9 days.
Hence, the answer to this problem is 9.

Note – In this problem we have assigned a variable for number of days he was present then the number of days he was absent can be calculated by total number of days minus number of days he was absent then according to the payment we added the payment for number of days he was present and subtracted the total payment of number of days he was absent and equated to the amount he got and made the equation. Proceeding like this will solve your problem and you will get the right answer.