Volunteer activity and the demands of work and family.

The flexibility of carrying out your work at home does have a large impact, increasing the probability of volunteering by .10, almost half of the average probability of .21. The extra day off per week typically created by compressed workweeks (e.g., four 10-hour days) also facilitates volunteering, albeit the effect is significant only at the 0.22 level.

Somewhat surprisingly, given their collective orientation and emphasis on "voice," union members are no more likely to volunteer than are non-union members. Perhaps the most unexpected effect is that persons who find their work or work hours too demanding are actually more likely to volunteer their time in spite of their work pressures. It is possible that volunteering serves as a safety valve for the pressures of work, or that there is reverse causality in that their time spent in volunteering is putting pressure on their work and worktime.

Perceiving oneself as overqualified for the job does not have a significant effect on volunteering as a way to better utilize one's qualifications. If paid employment does not fully utilize one's qualifications, it is possible that unpaid work is even more likely to be frustrating in this dimension. The threat of a job loss also does not have a significant effect on volunteering. This is likely the net effect of opposing forces: potential job losers may volunteer to establish networks; but they may also be focusing on sustaining their job.

Working long hours at one's existing job does not significantly affect the probability of volunteering. Long hours can leave little time for volunteering, but busy people tend to be busy at everything, with these effects possibly offsetting each other.

Persons in high-status occupations tend to be less likely to volunteer even after controlling for the opportunity cost of their time. Their focus seems to be on paid employment. Persons in the "caring and nurturing" sectors of health and education tend to be much more likely to volunteer, suggesting that there are "fixed effects" or unobserved traits in individuals that induce them to enter such jobs as well as to volunteer.

The Effect of Family Characteristics

There is not substantial variation in the probability of volunteering across the different marital status categories. However, persons with children living at home are substantially more likely to volunteer. This highlights that volunteering and childraising are complementary in spite of the time pressures of childraising. Obviously, many volunteer activities are associated with the raising of children in the broader community.

The probability of an employed person volunteering did not vary substantially depending upon the labour market and other activities of that person's spouse. An employed person whose spouse was also working, or actively seeking work, or at school, did not decrease their volunteer activity. This suggests that the time crunch of the dual earner family is not an impediment to volunteering. The reciprocal or collective benefits that may come from volunteering may offset some of the domestic time pressures.

The Effect of Personal and Demographic Characteristics

Somewhat surprisingly, the probability of volunteering is 0.05 greater for employed males than for females. This likely reflects the fact that wages (and hence the opportunity cost of time) are controlled for in this econometric analysis. (10) Furthermore, the volunteering here is formal volunteering for an organization, and females are more likely to do informal volunteering associated with childraising activities.

Volunteering is much higher in the youngest age group of 15-19 than in all other age groups, (11) reflecting the importance of resume building and productive networking in facilitating the school-to-work transition for that group. Volunteering is much lower for immigrants than for non-immigrants, in spite of the importance of networking and social capital development for immigrants. (12) They may engage in more informal volunteering in their own immigrant community, including remittances and activities in their home country, and they may be inhibited from formal volunteering for organizations because of language and cultural barriers.

There is an extremely strong positive relationship between volunteering and religious activity, (13) with the probability of volunteering increasing substantially for each category of greater religious activity. This suggests that there are strong "fixed effects" or traits within individuals that encourage them to engage in more socially oriented activities such as volunteering, religion or, as indicated previously, "caring" jobs such as in health and education. As well, most religions stress the importance of giving and caring for the disadvantaged.

Consistent with the household production function perspective, individuals are more likely to volunteer if they are in good or excellent health. Volunteering also increases with higher levels of education even after controlling for the effect of earnings and non-labour income that is likely also higher for persons of higher education. (14) Educated persons are likely more "productive" at volunteering, especially formal volunteering for organizations, and their education may have exposed them to social issues and causes that are dealt with through the social capital formation associated with volunteering.

The probability of volunteering is substantially lower in Quebec than in other provinces. (15) Traditionally, that province has relied heavily on state regulation to deal with social issues, and this may be a substitute for private volunteering (Vaillancourt 1994; White 2001). It may also be the case that informal volunteer activity is more prominent in Quebec--the data in this study being restricted to formal activity through an organization. As well, the Catholic church exerts a strong influence in that province. Since that effect cannot be controlled for in our statistical analysis, much of the Quebec effect may be capturing the effect of Catholicism compared to Protestantism, and the much greater tradition of volunteering in Protestant societies. (16) The latter likely reflects the fact that most Protestant religions were founded as volunteer organizations, they tend to be local and non-hierarchical, and they rely on social norms (Woolley 2001, 2003).

SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

Volunteer activity has an important productive component that can enhance the performance of various groups in the employment relationship--employees, employers and governments and organizations that are increasingly relying on volunteers. This importance is likely to grow in the future as both the demand and supply of volunteer labour is likely to increase. The demand for volunteer labour is likely to increase to fill any void created by retrenchment in government activities, such as deinstitutionalization, and community-based care especially associated with an aging population with longer life expectancy, as well as the legacy of growing income inequality and reduced transfer payments. The supply of volunteer labour is likely to increase to the extent that there is greater phasing in school-to-work and work-to-retirement transitions as well as larger numbers in those groups.

In such circumstances, it is important to understand the factors that influence the decision to volunteer, and especially those factors related to work and family, given the importance of volunteer activity to work and family. Out empirical analysis highlights that the household production function perspective, which emphasizes the importance of the household as both a producing and investing unit and as a consuming unit, can shed considerable light on understanding the decision to volunteer.

People are more likely to volunteer if they can "afford" to do so, and they are less likely to volunteer if the opportunity cost of their time is high. They are also more likely to volunteer if the work and worktime characteristics of their workplace facilitate volunteering and do not pose barriers to volunteering. The fact that family members are more likely to volunteer if they have children at home, in spite of the time crunch associated with childraising, highlights the complementary nature of volunteering and the social nature of many family activities such as the raising of children. This is further supported by the fact that volunteering is not reduced by the time crunch associated with working long hours or with one's spouse also being in the labour market or in school. Busy families seem to do more of everything, including volunteering. What did have a negative effect was unpredictable working hours. Rotating shift workers were much less likely to volunteer than workers with comparable characteristics.

The productive nature of volunteering is also highlighted by its prominence among employed young people who are at a stage in their career when networking and resume building are important in facilitating the school-to-work transition.

While volunteering does seem responsive to the costs and benefits associated with the work and family environment, different individuals also seem to posses specific traits that encourage them to engage in social activities such as religion, working in "caring occupations" and simply working intensively at all tasks including volunteering. Work and family matter, but so do these more innate individual traits that foster their engaging in a wide range of socially oriented activities.

(1.) The potential performance-enhancing effect of volunteering is illustrated by its impact on the "bottom line"--time spent volunteering yields a substantial monetary return--6-7 percent estimated in Day and Devlin (1998) and 4 percent in Devlin (2001).

(2.) USA Today, September 1, 1999, p. 3B.

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