Services from Social Capital

(billions 2012 $)

What are we measuring?

The services from social capital captured by the Maryland GPI include the value of leisure time, the value of unpaid labor, and internet services. Leisure time is our free time, apart from our job responsibilities. This time is valuable as it allows us to spend time with our families, recreate, and recharge mentally and physically. Unpaid labor is work that is necessary to upkeep our homes and families, like cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children or elderly family members. The internet provides services beyond what we spend on our monthly cable bill. It provides a vast wealth of opportunities for learning, unexperienced by previous generations.

Trends 2012-2022

Overall services from social capital have increased over time; it is nearly $17 billion higher in 2022 than 2012, an increase of nearly 22%. The largest increase originates from the value of unpaid household labor, which increased by $13 billion over the same period.

• Unpaid Labor
  The value of household labor increased by 26% from 2012 to 2022. Two primary factors leading to this positive change were increases in the value of both household work and caregiving. The average number of hours per year of a household increased as did the average number of hours per year of caregiving. Additionally, the median wage used to value household work and caregiving increased over time.

Calculation

The time spent in Maryland for leisure, performing housework, caregiving activities, and volunteering, taken from the American Time Use Survey, and the average wage rate for each activity in the state, was taken from the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation. The hours spent in each activity are multiplied by the appropriate wage rate to arrive at the value of each activity. The benefit from internet services has been estimated by several studies (Google, Byrnjolfsson and Oh 2012) and we take the average here ($590 per user per year), and multiply it by the number of internet users in Maryland (from the US census bureau).