Patrick usually provides child care for six children  Parents leave their children at Patrick' s house in the morning and pick them up after work  At the end of each workweek, the parents pay Patrick at an hourly rate for the child care provided that week
The weekly income Patrick receives is usually adequate but not always uniform, particularly in the winter, when children are likely to get sick and be unpredictably absent
Increase the hourly rate to a level that would provide adequate income even in a week when half of the children Patrick usually cares for are absent.