Poseidon Marine Stores Company manufactures special metallic materials and decorative fittings for luxury yachts that require highly skilled labor. Poseidon uses standard costs to prepare its flexible budget. For the first quarter of theyear, direct materials and direct labor standards for one of their popular products were asfollows:

Directmaterials: 4

4 pounds perunit; $ 3

$3 per pound

Directlabor: 4

4 hours perunit; $ 16

$16 per hour

Poseidon produced 4 comma 000

4,000 units during the quarter. At the end of thequarter, an examination of the labor costs records showed that the direct labor cost variance was $ 7 comma 000

$7,000 F. Which of the following is a logical explanation for thisvariance?