We detail a technique for estimating the UV extinction and luminosity of UV selected galaxies using UV quantities alone. The technique is based on a tight correlation between the ratios of far infrared (FIR) to UV flux ratios and UV color for a sample of local starbursts. A simple empirical fit to this correlation can be used to estimate UV extinction as a function of color. This method is applied to a sample of Lyman-break systems selected from the HDF and havingz≈3.The resultant UV emissivity is at least nine times higher than the original Madau &etal; [1] estimate. This technique can be readily applied to other rest-frame UV surveys. ©1999 American Institute of Physics.