Osterman Company provides its employees with vacation benefits and a defined contribution pension plan. Employees earned vacation pay of $33,100 for the period. The pension plan requires a contribution to the plan administrator equal to 6% of employee salaries. Salaries were $354,000 during the period, and the full amount due was contributed to the pension plan administrator. On December 31, provide the journal entry for the (a) vacation pay on page 11 of the journal and (b) pension benefit on page 12 of the journal.

You are the manager of a large crude-oil refinery. as part of the refining process, a certain heat exchanger (operated at high temperatures and with abrasive material flowing through it) must be replaced every year. the replacement and downtime cost in the first year is $165 comma 000. this cost is expected to increase due to inflation at a rate of 7% per year for six years (i.e. until the eoy 7), at which time this particular heat exchanger will no longer be needed. if the company's cost of capital is 15% per year, how much could you afford to spend for a higher quality heat exchanger so that these annual replacement and downtime costs could be eliminated?