Volunteering is Big Business - who knew?

What is the value of your time?

When you get paid for the work you do, what you earn can be measured.

But what is the worth of what you do when you don't get paid with money?

You can ask a mom, a dad, or a volunteer to tell you the worth of what they do.  Beyond saying 'priceless' or 'not enough,' each one likely doesn't have an economic number to give you.

Also, if a whole bunch of people volunteer to do the same thing, what is that worth?  It seems we know this already, but all that time is worth a lot.   PB
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From the Wall Street Journal online:

Volunteering—unpaid, non-compulsory work —is big business.

Andrew Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief economist, has taken a stab at estimating just how big and his conclusions are striking.

Mr. Haldane helped found an outfit in the U.K. called Pro Bono Economics that matches community-minded economists with charities seeking to measure the impact of their actions... 

Total up the global economy’s army of volunteers and the workforce of “Volunteerland” is about 971 million people, second only to China’s 1 billion workers.

So how much is such activity worth to an economy?

Since it is hard to measure what volunteers produce, Mr. Haldane estimates their contribution by working out the value of how much they put in—their labor.

Volunteers’ contribution to the U.K. economy could be anywhere up to £50 billion ($81 billion), he says, the equivalent of the annual output of Britain’s energy sector.

Volunteering has other economic benefits, Mr. Haldane argues. Workers who volunteer in their spare time tend to be happier and more productive. Volunteering may also enhance employees’ skills and boost their attractiveness to potential employers.

Some types of volunteering aid the economy by preventing harm: one Pro Bono Economics study found that a charity that helped young homeless people find work and in some cases get off drugs generated a return to society of £2.40 for every £1 invested.

Volunteering is “a well-hidden jewel” in the global economy, Mr. Haldane says...
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Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/09/12/volunteerland-is-bigger-than-china-says-boes-haldane/?