The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) is commonly used to estimate the amount of time spent on household services for valuing losses in personal injury and wrongful death cases. ATUS is sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and administered by the Census Bureau. It measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as working for pay, caring for children, volunteering, commuting, and socializing.
Data collection for the ATUS began in January 2003, and estimates are released annually. The most recent survey was conducted in 2014, and approximately 11,600 individuals were interviewed. The participants were asked to account for every hour between 4 a.m. the day before the interview and 4 a.m. the day of the interview. Using this data, it is possible to construct the average number of hours spent on household services based on demographic characteristics. The categories most often used to measure household services are time spent:
- Performing inside housework
- Cooking food and cleaning up after a meal
- Caring for pets, performing household maintenance, and maintaining vehicles
- Managing the household
- Shopping
- Obtaining services
- Traveling for household activities
- Caring for and helping household children
- Traveling to care for and help household members
The valuation of lost household services is performed by calculating how much it would take, in dollars, for the family to replace the services that were provided by the injured or deceased person. In other words, how much it would cost for the family to go out into the marketplace and pay for each of the individual services, such as having a person mow the lawn or take care of the financial records?
Once the market value of the service, expressed as an hourly rate, is determined, the final replacement cost of each service is calculated by multiplying the hourly market rate by the average number of hours spent performing the services, as reported in the ATUS. For example, in the 2003 ATUS it was reported that the average 24-year-old female spends 2.99 hours per week on food cooking and cleanup. The replacement cost for these services is $9.60 an hour. Therefore, the replacement cost for a week of food cooking and cleanup is $28.70 (2.99 x $9.60) and the annual replacement cost is $1,492.61 (2.99 x $9.60 x 52). The calculation is then performed for all household services for each remaining year of the person’s life expectancy. Finally, the summed loss of household services value must be discounted back to the present day.