Average Time Donated by Volunteers Worth $20.25 Per Hour in 2008, New Study Finds

The average monetary value of time donated by volunteers was $20.25 per hour in 2008, according to a new study by Independent Sector, in Washington, a coalition of major charities and foundations.

The study also broke down the average dollar value of volunteer hours by state, and in Washington and U.S. territories, using 2007 figures, the most recent state-by-state data available. Labor by volunteers in the District of Columbia was deemed the most financially valuable, worth $31.55 per hour, followed by that of New York volunteers, whose work was valued at $28.04 per hour.

The donated time of volunteers in Puerto Rico had the lowest monetary value, $10.56 per hour, and that of South Dakotans the second lowest, $14.27 per hour.

Using the Data

The study based its data on average hourly earnings for all hourly wage, nonfarm workers gathered by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, increasing figures by 12 percent to estimate for fringe benefits.

The overall average value of a volunteer hour has jumped 39 percent in the past 10 years, from $14.56 in 1998, and nearly 18 percent in the past five years, up from $17.19 in 2003. In both cases, the increases are ahead of the rate of inflation during those periods.

Charities can use the hourly rate to calculate the amount of support an organization receives from its volunteers, according to Independent Sector. However, such calculations of the value of volunteer services can be used to complete financial statements — including grant proposals and annual reports — only if the supporter is contributing a specialized skill, according to the Financial Accounting Standards Board, in Norwalk, Conn. Guidelines for using these data are available on the Standards Board’s Web site.

More data is below