Labor Idle Time Variance

The difference between the number of hours budgeted for work and the number of paid hours not spent working (idle time). For example, if employees of a company were budgeted to make products for 8,000 hours, but only did work for 7,800 hours, then 200 hours were spent in idle time. This is often further calculated by multiplying the idle time by the wage rate. If the wage rate is $10/hour, then the idle time carried a cost of $2,000 (200 hours x $10/hour). See also direct labor efficiency variance.