Benjamin Corporation is a shipping container refurbishment company that measures its output by the number of containers refurbished. The company has provided the following fixed and variable cost estimates that it uses for budgeting purposes. When the company prepared its planning budget at the beginning of March, it assumed that 26 containers would have been refurbished. However, 23 containers were actually refurbished during March.The amount shown for "Employee salaries and wages" in the planning budget for March would have been closest to:

A) $84,300
B) $89,757
C) $79,400
D) $81,300

Using the planning budget numbers, the fixed cost component is $58,500 ($31,500 + $27,000).

The variable cost component is $2,800 ($100 x 28) per container, which gives us a total variable cost of $72,800 ($2,800 x 26) for 26 containers as per the planning budget.

Thus, the total cost in the planning budget is $131,300 ($58,500 + $72,800).

To calculate the actual "Employee salaries and wages" cost, we need to use the actual number of containers refurbished (23) instead of the planned number (26).

Variable cost for 23 containers = $2,300 ($100 x 23)
Fixed cost remains the same at $58,500

Total cost for 23 containers = $60,800 ($58,500 + $2,300)

Subtracting total cost for 23 containers from the total cost for 26 containers in the planning budget gives us the flexible budget variance:

Flexible budget variance = Planning budget - Flexible budget
= ($131,300 - $60,800)
= $70,500

This variance can be split into its component parts:

1. Variable cost variance = (Actual quantity x Standard price) - (Actual quantity x Actual price)
= (23 x $100) - (23 x $100)
= $0

2. Fixed cost variance = Planning Budget - (Actual quantity x Standard price)
= $131,300 - (23 x $2,800)
= $64,900

Since the variable cost variance is $0, the total actual "Employee salaries and wages" cost is equal to the fixed cost component of $58,500.

Therefore, the closest option to the planning budget figure of $84,300 for "Employee salaries and wages" is option A) $84,300 - $70,500 + $58,500 = $72,300.