Question

During a recent lengthy strike at Morell Manufacturing Company, management replaced striking assembly line workers with office workers. The assembly line workers had been paid $18 per hour while the office workers are only paid $10 per hour. What is the most likely effect on the labor variances in the first month of this strike? Labor Rate Variance Labor Efficiency Variance A) Unfavorable No effect B) No effect Unfavorable C) Unfavorable Favorable D) Favorable Unfavorable

Answer 1

Answer: D) Favorable Unfavorable

Explanation:

To begin, it is worthy of note that in Variance, if something is said to be Favourable, it means a negative Variance because less resources than planned were spent. When it is Unfavourable, it means a positive balance variance.

Now, The formula for Labour Rate Variance is as follows,

LABOUR RATE VARIANCE=(ACTUAL RATE-STANDARD RATE)*ACTUAL HOURS WORKED

Seeing as the old workers were being paid $18, and the new office ones were paid $10, we can see that to be the actual rate was less than the standard rate. This would mean that there was a FAVOURABLE balance.

Labour Efficiency is calculated in a similar way,

LABOUR EFFICIENCY VARIANCE=(ACTUAL HOURS WORKED-STANDARD HOURS)*STANDARD RATE.

Now, these are Office workers not assemblyline workers. They do not have the experience to work in such a way that they produce as fast or as efficiently as their striking Assemblyline colleagues.

This would then mean that their actual hours will be MORE than the standard rate which can only lead to an UNFAVOURABLE BALANCE.