IMPLICIT COST: An opportunity cost that does NOT involve a money payment or a market transaction. This should be contrasted with explicit cost that DOES involve a money payment or a market transaction. The common misconception among non-economists out there in the real world is that the term "cost" is synonymous with the term "payment," that is, all costs are explicit costs, to be a cost you have to give up some money. Well, I'm here to tell you that this isn't true. Cost is opportunity cost. It's the satisfaction NOT received from activities NOT pursued. It's the value of foregone production. And not all opportunity costs involve a money payment.

     See also | opportunity cost | money | market | explicit cost | normal profit | accounting cost | economic cost | scarcity |

IMPLICIT COST, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2018. [Accessed: October 20, 2018].

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The official item in the National Income and Product Accounts maintained by the Bureau of Economics Analysis measuring wages earned by the household sector for supplying labor services. This is one of five official factor payments making up national income. The other four are net interest, rental income of persons, corporate profits, and proprietors' income. Compensation of employees is far and away the largest of the five factor payments, typically running about 70 percent of national income.

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