A labor standard is the amount of labor time that need for the completion of a task. It is sometimes referred to as the standard labor rate. The labor standard concept used when planning how many employees to assign to a task, which is part of the budgeting and planning processes. For example, a company may conclude that, given the amount of a labor standard, it must maintain production through three shifts to ensure that a sufficient number of units are produced to meet the requirements of the sales forecast.