To obtain the value of voluntary activity, the number of hours volunteered (see Volume) is multiplied by an average wage rate appropriate to the activity. The average wage rates used are from the New Earnings Survey. We used median wages, to avoid the effect of very high and very low levels of income in the distribution.

For further details, see Chapter 8 of the HHSA Methodology (downloads).

The value of formal volunteering should be interpreted with caution, bearing in mind its sensitivity to some of the assumptions made. See Sensitivity Analysis for results using alternative wage rates.