Human Services News

From University of Toronto:

If time is money, then people directly paid for their time are less willing to give it up for free, a new study shows.

Workers paid by the hour are less likely to do volunteer work outside of their jobs, says a paper by researchers Sanford E. DeVoe of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and Jeffrey Pfeffer of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

That's because the way they are paid conditions them to think about time in money terms.

The researchers found that hourly-waged workers in the U.S. spent an average of 36 percent less time volunteering than workers on salary.

The results show that the way companies pay their staff can affect how they behave beyond the workplace.

"We have to be really aware about these potential consequences," said Prof. DeVoe.

The study used statistics from the 2003 American Time Use Survey, compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While such data are not available in Canada, Prof. DeVoe has been able to come up with similar results using data from the U.K.

The Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is redesigning business education for the 21st century with a curriculum based on Integrative Thinking.

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