For a small manufacturing firm, a current-period job that requires 35 hours of direct labor is to be allocated $437.50 of overhead cost based on a rate developed from previous period data. The following additional information is available:

 Overhead is allocated based on direct labor hours.

 One thousand direct labor hours were expended in the previous period.

 The previous period’s average labor rate was $10/hour.

 The current period’s average labor rate is $10/hour.

a. What were the overhead costs for the previous period?

b. If overhead for the job in question had been allocated based on direct labor dollars, how much overhead cost would have been allocated? (If you did not get an answer to Part

a, you may assume a value of $15,000 for previous period overhead costs.)