Workforce, Labor Standards & Skills Planning worked example

Direct Labor Cost at 63% productive time share: a worked example

Suppose productive time share falls to 63%. This page works the full calculation at that level so you can see exactly which result moves and by how much. Calculates the direct labor cost of a job from hours worked, a loaded wage, and the productive share of clocked time.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Direct labor hours worked: 320 hrs (held at the documented default)
  • Loaded hourly wage (wage + burden): 34 $/hr (held at the documented default)
  • Productive time share (value-add %): 63 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 88)
  • Shift premium / off-shift adder: 800 $ (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Direct labor cost = labor hours x loaded wage x productive time share + shift premium.
  • Total direct labor cost works out to 7,654 $ at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Direct labor cost per unit works out to 23.92 $ / piece at these inputs.
  • Variable direct labor cost works out to 6,854 $ at these inputs.
  • Fixed direct labor cost adder works out to 800 $ at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where productive time share sits at 88% and the headline result is 10,374 $, this scenario comes in 26.22% below the baseline at 7,654 $.
  • It multiplies direct labor hours by the fully loaded wage and the productive time share, then adds any fixed shift premium to give total and per-unit direct labor cost. When the numbers land here, the stressed input is the lever to work; the walkthrough above shows exactly how much each output recovers as it climbs back toward the baseline.

Results at a glance

  • Total direct labor cost: 7,654 $ (headline result)
  • Direct labor cost per unit: 23.92 $ / piece
  • Variable direct labor cost: 6,854 $
  • Fixed direct labor cost adder: 800 $

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Direct Labor Cost calculator, set productive time share to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.