Sarah Aiken is the owner of Pretty Paws, a dog-grooming service. At standard, it takes 1 hour to groom each dog. During the month of October, it took Pretty Paws employees 350 hours to groom 300 dogs, at a total labor cost of $4,890. In November, employees spent 355 hours grooming 310 dogs, at a total labor cost of $6,500; in December, 360 hours were used to groom 330 dogs, at a total labor cost of $6,980. The wage rate standard for groomers is $15 per hour.
Required
a. Calculate the labor rate and efficiency variances for each of the past 3 months.
b. What trends can you spot regarding the variances over the past 3 months? What might be a cause for the labor rate variance? What might be a cause for the labor efficiency variance?