One of the most agreed upon aspects of volunteer research is that people with higher social and economic status tend to volunteer more (Wilson, 2000). David Horton Smith (1994) conceptualized this phenomenon as the dominant status model Wilson and Musicks (1997) resource model further assumes that volunteer work is productive work that requires human capital. Dominant status not only relates to the supply of volunteers but also to their demand by organizations. According to Morrow-Howell et al. (2003), volunteering opportunities are more widely available to people with means, skills, and status. Being recruited depends on three organizational mechanisms: availability (agencies preferences in terms of for example race or marital status), eligibility (education, age, ethnicity, nationality), and flexibility (parenting, employment). Similarly, Musick and Wilson (2008) noted that while people who are asked to volunteer are also more likely to do so, not everyone is as likely to be asked. In their recruitment strategies, nonprofit organizations tend to target people with high participation potential (p.290). Musick & Wilson (2008, p. 293) note that One reason, perhaps the only reason, why some factors are associated with volunteering is that they increase the chances of being asked.
While existing research has mainly focused on identifying barriers in the access to volunteering, remarkably less insight exists in hierarchical stratification patterns in volunteer labor itself in other words, the possibility of job segregation in volunteer labor (Musick & Wilson, 2008). However, those with high socioeconomic statuses not only have higher rates of volunteering, but also tend to fulfill more prestigious and meaningful tasks in the manifold organizations that employ volunteers. Indeed, Musick & Wilson (2008) argue that volunteer tasks can be distinguished according to their rank as measured by criteria such as power, prestige, and autonomy; and in this way replicate the way jobs are ranked in other sectors: As in paid jobs, some volunteer tasks are more desirable or prestigious than others. However, such mechanisms of inequality in volunteer work itself are as yet insufficiently understood.
As Rameder and Meyer (2016) note, this it problematic for several reasons. First, different social groups have different opportunities to realize their interests in society; hence volunteering a distinguishing feature of nonprofit organizations does not promote integration of the underprivileged and may wrongly be considered a means to fight social exclusion. Second, personal and social rewards derived from voluntary work may be unequally distributed and in this way may even reinforce mechanisms of inequality that exist in paid work. Third, the managerial need to recruit volunteers who can contribute human and social resources may stand in conflict with nonprofits social and integrative mission, so more insight in the specific challenges of volunteer management in terms of inclusion and diversity is needed.
This paper aims to uncover stratification patterns in volunteer activity by making use of the methodology proposed by the ILO Manual on the Measurement of Volunteering Work (ILO, 2011). This manual was implemented in Belgium in the form of a volunteer survey supplement to the Belgian labor force survey in the final trimester of 2014 (consisting of a sample of about 10.000 households). The data collection includes detailed information on 1) the amount of volunteering (number of volunteers, number of hours volunteered); 2) the type of volunteering performed; 3) the type of organization and the sector. In addition, the labor force survey itself provides rich information on the socio-economic position and status of the volunteer as well as the household.
The empirical analysis will proceed in 2 steps. First, we will gain insight in the socio-economic determinants of participation in volunteering in general (yes/no). Second, we will explore how the socio-economic position of the volunteer is linked to inequalities in the nature of their volunteer activity. The ILO volunteering supplement in the labor force survey provides a unique opportunity to assess in a detailed manner not only SES but also the nature of the paid work and paid work conditions, as well as to operationalize the nature of volunteer work in terms of occupation (based on ISCO classification) and industry (based on the NACE classification).
3. Governance, employment and human resource management
