41. Decomposing Sales as Contribution plus Variable Costs . 42. They are " shifting away from fixed ( payroll ) costs toward variable costs , " he said. 43. These other methods generally have a higher fixed cost, but a lower variable cost than metal spinning. 44. Every year, PNC offsets the swans'variable cost by calculating a core index that excludes such cost anomalies. 45. "Ford has a considerable variable cost problem right now, " said Stephen Girsky, analyst at Morgan Stanley. 46. In this context a variable cost is one that varies with the number of units the business sells. 47. The usual costing method makes use of time and material costs as variable costs and the fixed costs 48. And, by trimming variable costs , it tempts companies with high fixed costs to engage in destructive price competition. 49. The less variable cost there is, the more the additional revenue earned will contribute to the overall profit. 50. A company sells a product at $ 60 per unit that has unit variable cost of $ 40.