You have many hats to wear in your job as Big Boss. Managing all expenses is critical to the survival of the enterprise for which you are responsible. Payroll and employee benefits are a major portion of your expense budget. This assignment will provide to you a very elementary understanding of payroll expenses.

Givens:

560 workers, 5-day work week, 52 weeks per year, 8-hour work day, no overtime is budgeted, 1 shift of operation, 10 days paid vacation per employee, per year;12 paid holidays per year; average hourly pay = $15.50. Employee benefits = 38% of wages; including all wages paid for holidays and vacation days.

1. Not counting holidays and vacation days, how many working days are there in the schedule shown above for one worker?

2. What is the cost of wages for 1 hour of operation for all employees combined? Exclude benefits.

3. What is the annual cost of wages for 1 employee, including vacation pay and holiday pay? Exclude other employee benefits.

4. What is the total, annual cost of benefits for all workers (38% of wages)?

5. What is the additional cost of wages (not benefits) if the number of paid holidays is increased from 12 to 13?

6. What is the annual cost increase of a 1.9% wage increase for all 560 workers (calculate for both wages and benefits)?

7. What will be the annual cost to establish a retirement account for all employees funded by the employer @ $1.00 per hour worked (use 260 days per worker)?

Hard Part:

You are paid big bucks to be an effective, creative manager.

You must come up with a step-by-step strategy to offset the added payroll and benefit expenses you calculated for numbers 5, 6 and 7.

Note: Our competitive situation does NOT permit us to increase prices for our products. You are to assume that our sales volume will NOT increase.

Put on your thinking cap and start writing.