Ronald’s Refrigeration Repair located in Tampa, Florida provides service to restaurant
customers. He has always had the policy of letting his employees have 6 holidays off
each year (New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and
Christmas). However, he has also discovered that these are the days when restaurants
seem to be the busiest and have refrigeration breakdowns. As a result he is considering
paying an emergency skeletal crew time and a half overtime rather than giving them the
days off.
Ronald estimates that if he does this, he can generate $5,000 revenue for each of these 6
days. The incremental cost for 2 repair personnel will be $60 per hour for 8 hours per
day plus daily costs of: $500 for parts, $300 for transportation costs, and $200 for
dispatcher staff. These costs do not include a share of monthly rent or depreciation
related to equipment.
Although Ronald would like to maintain his current holidays off policy, he would like
to know the opportunity cost of this. Present Ronald with an estimate of the opportunity
cost and explain whey you do not have to consider rent or depreciation in the estimate.