Base rate

Base rate is like a starting point. Imagine you have a bag of Skittles and you want to divide them up among your friends. The base rate would be the number of Skittles each friend gets. If your base rate is 5 Skittles, then each friend will start with 5 Skittles. You can then add or take away more Skittles from each friend as you like, but everyone will start with the same number. Base rate works the same way in other situations too. It's the number you start with and can adjust depending on what else is going on.