Americans' volunteer work priced out at $64 billion

If Americans were paid for volunteering to sing in church choirs, to visit the bedridden, and to raise funds for charity, the payroll would amount to $64.5 billion a year, a study concludes.

The study, just released by Independent Sector, a nonprofit coalition of volunteer agencies, foundations, and donor corporations, was based on figures from a Gallup survey.

That survey showed that 84 million Americans volunteer an estimated 8.4 billion hours a year in such structured categories as advocacy, direct services, and fund raising.