Answer :
Let x be her salary of 2 years ago.
Last year, she received a 14% raise in salary, based on her initial salary, which was x.
So the raise she received was
[tex]x\cdot\frac{14}{100}[/tex]So, if we want to calculate her salary last year, we simply add the salary she had 2 years ago to the amount she got raised, so her salary last year was
[tex]x\cdot(1+\frac{14}{100})[/tex]Note that to calculate the salary of last year, we took the salary of the previous year (x) and multiply it by (1+ 14/100).
Since this year she got another 14% raise, we simply follow our principle of multiplying by (1+14/100). We take the salary of last year and multiply it by this factor, so we end up having
[tex]x\cdot(1+\frac{14}{100})\cdot(1+\frac{14}{100})=x\cdot(1+\frac{14}{100})^2[/tex]This expression would be her actual salary, which we know is 96000. So we have the equation
[tex]x\cdot(1+\frac{14}{100})^2=96000[/tex]if we divide both sides by (1+14/100)^2, we get
[tex]x=\frac{96000}{(1+\frac{14}{100})^2}=73868.8827[/tex]which rounded to the neares penny is 73868.88