Question

A company pays its employees as managers (who receive a fixed weekly salary), hourly workers (who receive a fixed hourly wage for up to the first 40 hours they work and "time-and-a-half" 1.5 times their hourly wagefor overtime hours worked), commission workers (who receive \(\$ 250\) plus 5.7 percent of their gross weekly sales), or pieceworkers (who receive a fixed amount of money per item for each of the items they produceeach pieceworker in this company works on only one type of item). Write a program to compute the weekly pay for each employee. You do not know the number of employees in advance. Each type of employee has its own pay code: Managers have code 1 , hourly workers have code 2 , commission workers have code 3 and pieceworkers have code \(4 .\) Use a switch to compute each employee's pay according to that employee's paycode. Within the switch, prompt the user (i.e., the payroll clerk) to enter the appropriate facts your program needs to calculate each employee's pay according to that employee's paycode.

Short answer

Use a switch statement based on each employee's pay code and calculate their pay accordingly.

Step-by-step solution

Initialize Variables and Configuration

Begin by initializing the required variables to store inputs and configuration for each employee type. These could include variables for storing hourly wage, hours worked, gross weekly sales, pieces produced, and amount paid per piece.

Receive Pay Code from User

Prompt the user (payroll clerk) to input the employee's pay code. This will help determine which category the employee falls under, and hence, which pay computation method to follow.

Implement Switch Statement

Set up a switch statement that branches based on the employee's pay code. Each case within the switch will handle one type of employee.

Calculate Pay for Managers (Code 1)

For employees with code 1, request the fixed weekly salary from the user. Since managers have a straightforward fixed salary, directly output this amount as their pay.

Calculate Pay for Hourly Workers (Code 2)

For hourly workers, request the hourly wage and number of hours worked. If they worked 40 or fewer hours, multiply the hours by the hourly wage. For hours over 40, calculate normal pay for the first 40 hours and then add 1.5 times the hourly wage for overtime hours.

Calculate Pay for Commission Workers (Code 3)

For commission workers, prompt for the amount of gross weekly sales. Calculate the pay as a fixed base amount ($250) plus 5.7% of their gross sales and output this total amount.

Calculate Pay for Pieceworkers (Code 4)

For pieceworkers, ask for the number of items produced and the fixed amount paid per item. Multiply these two numbers to determine and output the total pay for the pieceworker.

Loop for Additional Employees

Since the number of employees is not known in advance, wrap the switch in a loop. Allow the user to enter data for an unknown number of employees, exiting when the user indicates they are done.

Key concepts

C++ Programming

C++ is a powerful programming language that is widely used for a variety of applications including system software, game development, and financial systems, such as employee payroll calculations. C++ provides robust features such as object-oriented programming, which brings flexibility and reusability to code, thanks to its use of classes and objects. Additionally, C++ allows for detailed low-level manipulation of hardware, which is beneficial for performance-critical applications. When calculating employee pay, C++'s ability to handle complex logic and operations allows developers to automate the payroll process effectively. This process includes prompting users for input, making calculations based on different parameters, and outputting results – all of which can be efficiently handled by C++.

Switch Statement

The switch statement in C++ is a control structure that allows the program to choose an execution path based on the value of a variable, often easing the implementation of conditional operations. When working on the employee pay calculation problem, the switch statement is effective for branching logic based on the employee's pay code.

• This logically organizes code and reduces complexity, making it easier to manage different cases, such as the calculation methods for managers, hourly workers, commission workers, and pieceworkers.
• Each case within the switch corresponds to a specific pay code, guiding the program flow to execute the appropriate computations.
• Using a switch statement improves readability and maintenance of the code compared to multiple if-else statements.

Understanding how the switch works is vital because it directly impacts the ability to extend or modify pay calculation logic when new employee categories are introduced.

Loop Structures

Loop structures in C++ are used to iterate over a block of code multiple times. This becomes incredibly useful when handling scenarios where the number of elements (such as employees) is not predefined. In the context of employee pay calculation:

• We use loop structures to repeatedly prompt the user for employee data until they decide to finish. This ensures each employee is processed without knowing the total count in advance.
• It could be a while, for, or do-while loop, depending on whether the condition needs to be checked before or after executing the loop body.
• Using loops keeps the program flexible and dynamic, easily accommodating new entries and ensuring all employees' pay can be calculated in one program execution session.

The logic of looping through employees ensures every employee's pay is calculated and recorded before processing the next, making loop structures a critical component of the payroll computation algorithm.

Pay Code Logic

Pay code logic is central to determining how each type of employee's pay is computed in our program. By assigning a specific code to each category of workers:

• Employees can be easily categorized, and the code-based logic helps the program to apply the correct salary calculations.
• For managers (code 1), it uses a fixed salary, making calculations straightforward without needing additional input, aside from confirmation of employment level.
• Hourly workers (code 2) require inputs about hours worked and hourly wages to calculate their weekly pay, including overtime considerations for hours over 40.
• Commission workers (code 3) have their pay computed from base pay plus a percentage of sales, needing only sales data input.
• Pieceworkers (code 4) rely on quantity-focused logic, where pay is a direct result of multiplying the number of items produced by the rate per item.

Understanding and implementing the pay code logic ensures accurate and efficient processing of payrolls, reducing human error in manual calculations.