Final answer:
The student's question concerns calculating the activity rate for a machining activity cost pool within an activity-based costing framework but lacks sufficient details to provide a specific answer. A typical activity rate calculation would require dividing the total cost by the activity's allocation base, such as machine hours.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question appears to address the concept of activity-based costing (ABC), a method of allocating overhead and indirect costs—like machining—to products and services based on the activities that go into them. However, the information provided does not give enough detail to directly answer what the activity rate for the machining activity cost pool is. Typically, to calculate an activity rate, one would divide the total cost of the activity by the number of units of the activity's allocation base (such as machine hours).
In this scenario, if we were to consider the cost of labor (at a renegotiated wage of $20 an hour) and the cost of the machine (at $200 each), we could estimate the activity rate for the machining cost pool if we knew the machine hours involved. For example, if the firm uses the machine for 100 hours, and the machine costs $200, the activity rate for machining would be $2 per machine hour ($200 divided by 100 hours). However, this is a simplified example, and the actual activity rate could vary depending on additional factors not provided in the question.