A contractor's job cost sheet shows: Materials $30,000, Labor $20,000, Subcontractors $15,000, Overhead allocation $10,000. What is the total direct job cost?
Explanation
The stem asks for DIRECT job cost — the costs traceable to this project. Materials $30,000 + labor $20,000 + subcontractors $15,000 = $65,000 (a). The $10,000 overhead allocation is an INDIRECT cost: it is a share of office rent, insurance and administrative salaries spread across every job, not a cost caused by this one. Adding it gives $75,000 (b), which is the job's fully loaded cost, not its direct cost — that substitution is the whole trap. (c) $50,000 drops the subcontractors, and (d) $45,000 counts only materials and overhead.
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