Definition of Wage Flexibility

Wage Flexibility

Ease with which wages adjust in response to excess supply or demand.

Wage expense

The amount paid to employees for services rendered; synonymous with salary expense and payroll expense.

Efficiency Wage

wage that maximizes profits.

Price Flexibility

Ease with which prices adjust in response to excess supply or demand.

Real Wage

wage expressed in base-year dollars, calculated by dividing the money wage by a price index.

Wage/Price Controls

An incomes policy in which wages and prices are constrained by law not to rise by more than a specified percentage.

Wage Stickiness

Resistance of wages to change.

Benefit Wage Ratio Method

The proportion of total taxable wages for laid off
employees during the measurement period divided by the total payroll during
the period. This calculation is used by states to determine the unemployment
contribution rate to charge employers.

Minimum Wage

An hourly wage rate set by the federal government below
which actual hourly wages cannot fall. This rate can be increased by state governments.

Annual fund operating expenses

For investment companies, the management fee and "other expenses,"
including the expenses for maintaining shareholder records, providing shareholders with financial statements,
and providing custodial and accounting services. For 12b-1 funds, selling and marketing costs are included.

Capital market efficiency

Reflects the relative amount of wealth wasted in making transactions. An efficient
capital market allows the transfer of assets with little wealth loss. See: efficient market hypothesis.

Efficiency

Reflects the amount of wasted energy.

Expense ratio

The percentage of the assets that were spent to run a mutual fund (as of the last annual
statement). This includes expenses such as management and advisory fees, overhead costs and 12b-1
(distribution and advertising ) fees. The expense ratio does not include brokerage costs for trading the
portfolio, although these are reported as a percentage of assets to the SEC by the funds in a Statement of
Additional Information (SAI). the SAI is available to shareholders on request. Neither the expense ratio or the
SAI includes the transaction costs of spreads, normally incurred in unlisted securities and foreign stocks.
These two costs can add significantly to the reported expenses of a fund. The expense ratio is often termed an
Operating expense Ratio (OER).

Expensed

Charged to an expense account, fully reducing reported profit of that year, as is appropriate for
expenditures for items with useful lives under one year.

External efficiency

Related: pricing efficiency.

Informational efficiency

The speed and accuracy with which prices reflect new information.

Marketplace price efficiency

The degree to which the prices of assets reflect the available marketplace
information. Marketplace price efficiency is sometimes estimated as the difficulty faced by active
management of earning a greater return than passive management would, after adjusting for the risk
associated with a strategy and the transactions costs associated with implementing a strategy.

Pricing efficiency

Also called external efficiency, a market characteristic where prices at all times fully
reflect all available information that is relevant to the valuation of securities.

Semi-strong form efficiency

A form of pricing efficiency where the price of the security fully reflects all
public information (including, but not limited to, historical price and trading patterns). Compare weak form
efficiency and strong form efficiency.

Strong-form efficiency

Pricing efficiency, where the price of a, security reflects all information, whether or
not it is publicly available. Related: Weak form efficiency, semi strong form efficiency

Weak form efficiency

A form of pricing efficiency where the price of the security reflects the past price and
trading history of the security. In such a market, security prices follow a random walk. Related: Semistrong
form efficiency, strong form efficiency.

GENERAL-AND-ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES

What was spent to run the non-sales and non-manufacturing part of a company, such as office salaries and interest paid on loans.

OPERATING EXPENSES

The total amount that was spent to run a company this year.

SELLING EXPENSES

What was spent to run the sales part of a company, such as sales salaries, travel, meals, and lodging for salespeople, and advertising.

VARIABLE EXPENSES

Those that vary with the amount of goods you produce or sell. These may include utility bills, labor, etc.

Expenses

The costs incurred in buying, making or producing goods and services.

Accrued expenses payable

expenses that have to be recorded in order for the financial statements to be accurate. Accrued expenses usually do not involve the receipt of an invoice from the company providing the goods or services.

Depreciation expense

An expense account that represents the portion of the cost of an asset that is being charged to expense during the current period.

Expenses

Costs involved in running the company.

Office expense

The amount of expense incurred for the general operation of an office.

Payroll expense

The amount paid to employees for services rendered; synonymous with salary expense and wage expense.

Payroll tax expense

The amount of tax associated with salaries that an employer pays to governments (federal, state, and local).

Prepaid expenses

expenses that have been paid for but have not yet been used up; examples are prepaid insurance and prepaid rent.

Rent expense

The amount of expense paid for the use of property.

Salary expense

The amount paid to employees for services rendered; synonymous with payroll expense and wage expense.

accrued expenses payable

The account that records the short-term, noninterest-
bearing liabilities of a business that accumulate over time, such
as vacation pay owed to employees. This liability is different than
accounts payable, which is the liability account for bills that have been
received by a business from purchases on credit.

fixed expenses (costs)

expenses or costs that remain the same in amount,
or fixed, over the short run and do not vary with changes in sales volume
or sales revenue or other measures of business activity. Over the
longer run, however, these costs increase or decrease as the business
grows or declines. Fixed operating costs provide capacity to carry on
operations and make sales. Fixed manufacturing overhead costs provide
production capacity. Fixed expenses are a key pivot point for the analysis
of profit behavior, especially for determining the breakeven point and for
analyzing strategies to improve profit performance.

revenue-driven expenses

Operating expenses that vary in proportion to
changes in total sales revenue (total dollars of sales). Examples are sales
commissions based on sales revenue, credit card discount expenses, and
rents and franchise fees based on sales revenue. These expenses are one
of the key variables in a profit model. Segregating these expenses from
other types of expenses that behave differently is essential for management
decision-making analysis. (These expenses are not disclosed separately
in externally reported income statements.)

unit-driven expenses

expenses that vary in close proportion to changes
in total sales volume (total quantities of sales). Examples of these types of
expenses are delivery costs, packaging costs, and other costs that depend
mainly on the number of products sold or the number of customers
served. These expenses are one of the key factors in a profit model for
decision-making analysis. Segregating these expenses from other types
of expenses that behave differently is essential for management decisionmaking
analysis. The cost-of-goods-sold expense depends on sales volume
and is a unit-driven expense. But product cost (i.e., the cost of
goods sold) is such a dominant expense that it is treated separately from
other unit-driven operating expenses.

variable expenses

expenses that change with changes in either sales volume
or sales revenue, in contrast to fixed expenses that remain the same
over the short run and do not fluctuate in response to changes in sales
volume or sales revenue. See also revenue-driven expenses and unitdriven
expenses.

efficiency

a measure of the degree to which tasks were performed
to produce the best yield at the lowest cost from
the resources available; the degree to which a satisfactory
relationship of outputs to inputs occurs

labor efficiency variance

the number of hours actually worked minus the standard hours allowed for the production
achieved multiplied by the standard rate to establish
a value for efficiency (favorable) or inefficiency (unfavorable)
of the work force

manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE)

a ratio resulting from dividing the actual production time by total lead time;
reflects the proportion of lead time that is value-added

overhead efficiency variance

the difference between total budgeted overhead at actual hours and total budgeted
overhead at standard hours allowed for the production
achieved; it is computed as part of a three-variance analysis;
it is the same as variable overhead efficiency variance

variable overhead efficiency variance

the difference between budgeted variable overhead based on actual input activity and variable overhead applied to production

Expense

The reduction in value of an asset as it is used for current company operations.

Labor efficiency variance

The difference between the amount of time that was budgeted
to be used by the direct labor staff and the amount actually used, multiplied
by the standard labor rate per hour.

Operating expense

Any expense associated with the general, sales, and administrative
functions of a business.

Prepaid expense

An expenditure that is paid for in one accounting period, but which
will not be entirely consumed until a future period. Consequently, it is carried on the
balance sheet as an asset until it is consumed.

semi-strong-form efficiency

Market prices reflect all publicly available information.

strong-form efficiency

Market prices rapidly reflect all information that could in principle be used to determine true value.

weak-form efficiency

Market prices rapidly reflect all information contained in the history of past prices.

Efficiency

The ability to produce the things most wanted at the least cost.

Market Efficiency

See efficiency.

Current Income Tax Expense

That portion of the total income tax provision that is based on
taxable income.

Deferred Income Tax Expense

That portion of the total income tax provision that is the result
of current-period originations and reversals of temporary differences.

Income Tax Expense

See income tax provision.

Fixed Expenses

Cost of doing business which does not change with the volume of business. Examples might be rent for business premises, insurance payments, heat and light.

management expense ratio (MER)

The total expenses expressed as an annualized percentage of daily average net assets. MER does not include brokerage fees and commissions, which are also payable by the Fund.

Operating Expenses

The amount of money the company must spend on overhead, distribution, taxes, underwriting the risk and servicing the policy. It is a factor in calculating premium rates.

Related to : financial, finance, business, accounting, payroll, inventory, investment, money, inventory control, stock trading, financial advisor, tax advisor, credit.