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Labor as variable cost

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Throughout the corporate world, businesses are transforming labor into a more flexible (and variable) cost. Among such companies are Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, DuPont, Sun Microsystems, and British Airways. Discuss whether direct labor is a fixed or a variable cost. What are the pros and cons of management treating direct labor as a variable cost? Are there ethical issues to be considered here?

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A discussion on labor as a variable cost and the ethical issues with the same.

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Labor is a bit of both. For those with a salary and firm hours, then fixed is the most likely choice. But sometimes there are issues such as overtime and seasonal help and special events and needs and the costs are not fixed, though a number of companies would never ...

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