A small company did an analysis of their pay scale versus years of experience and found that the line of best fit was y = 2035.6x + 36,000. What does the 2035.6 mean in context of the problem? A) That employees on average earn $2035.60 per year. B) That if they had 2035.6 years of experience they would earn $0. C) That they should have 2035.6 years of experience in order to earn the most money. D) That for every year of experience they have their salary

The correct answer is D) for every year of experience they have their salary would increase by $2035.60.

Explanation:
The equation y = 2035.6x + 36000 is written in slope-intercept form.  Slope-intercept form is y=mx+b, where m is the slope and b is the y-intercept. 

In our equation, m=2035.6 and b=36000.  The slope is 2035.6.

The slope of a line is the rate of change of the line.  It tells how much the function increases or decreases for every increase in the x-value.  In our problem, x is the number of years of experience and y, the function, describes the total salary.

Since our slope is 2035.6, this means that the function, the salary, increases $2035.6 for every increase in x, the years of experience.