Anthony works an hourly wage job at the mall, and the amount he is paid varies directly with the number of hours he works.  He was paid $196 for working 16 hours.

How do we figure this out

To figure out Anthony's hourly wage, you can set up a direct variation equation.

Let's assume the hourly wage is represented by "w" and the number of hours worked is represented by "h".

We know that the amount Anthony is paid varies directly with the number of hours he works, so we can write the equation as:

w = k * h

where "k" represents the constant of variation.

We also know that Anthony was paid $196 for working 16 hours. Plugging in these values into the equation, we get:

196 = k * 16

To find the value of "k", we need to divide both sides of the equation by 16:

k = 196 / 16 = 12.25

Now that we have the value of "k", we can substitute it back into the equation to solve for the hourly wage "w":

w = 12.25 * h

Therefore, Anthony's hourly wage is $12.25.