Overtime Premium and Idle Time
The purpose of classifying costs in detail is to associate an individual cost with a specific
cause or reason for why it was incurred. Two classes of indirect labor
—overtime premium
and idle time
—need special mention. Overtime premium is the wage rate paid to workers
(for both direct labor and indirect labor) in excess of their straight-time wage rates.
Overtime premium is usually considered to be a part of indirect costs or overhead.
Consider an example from the service sector. George Flexner does home repairs for Sears
Appliance Services. He is paid $20 per hour for straight-time and $30 per hour (time and
a half) for overtime. His overtime premium is $10 per overtime hour. If he works 44 hours,
including 4 overtime hours, in one week, his gross compensation would be classified as
follows:
D