Can I omit the hyphens in "% a year"?

Question

In the following, can I omit the hyphens in "%-a-year" and "million a year"? I cannot recast. This is nonfiction.

Joe said, "Mike received a 10% a year increase."

Gary said, "The figures reflected a 5% to 7% a year increase in net profits."

Gary said, "The figures reflected a 5–7% a year increase in net profits." (Or, for variation, we can drop the first percent sign and insert a dash as exampled above. Good?)

Frank said, "Brad's grandfather once owned a $200 million to $250 million a year business."

Dana said, "My husband and I have a $500,000 to $700,000 a year joint income, depending on the frequency of our bonuses."

Do all look good – minus the hyphens – in terms of clarity and readability?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Yes.

There is not fully-agreed upon rule about hyphenation here. Some people will always hyphenate, some will never hyphenate and some will hyphenate when the phrase is a modifier and not when it is an object or subject. This variance in practice means that whichever you choose you'd be doing something that isn't strange.

The intention of any of the three styles is the same; that the text be understandable, readable and clear. If you find the style you tend to use is hindering in that pursuit more than helping then by all means abandon it.

(If for some reason you have to stick strictly to a style-guide that says otherwise though, you'll have to discuss that decision with whoever says you have to stick to it).