Below is a summary of the last 12 months of costs for a service company, showing the total work time and salary costs for each month:
Month Total work time (hours) Total salary costs ($)
Jan 160 17,200
Feb 310 26,454
Mar 335 26,500
Apr 275 25,147
May 165 17,000
Jun 185 17,800
Jul 300 23,650
Aug 110 15,570
Sep 360 27,945
Oct 130 15,600
Nov 290 24,569
Dec 245 18,900
The company has a normal capacity of 200 hours per month. However, when the company has a busy month (i.e. when demand exceeds normal capacity), they hire some additional temporary staff to complete the work, who are paid a higher hourly rate.
Using high-low analysis, calculate the variable labour cost per hour for regular workers (i.e. the first 200 hours of work). Show your answer to 4 decimal places.