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Labour power (in german: Arbeitskraft; in french: force de travail) is a key concept used by
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
in his critique of
capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
political economy Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...
. Marx distinguished between the capacity to do work, labour power, from the physical act of working, labour. Labour power exists in any kind of society, but on what terms it is traded or combined with
means of production The means of production is a term which describes land, labor and capital that can be used to produce products (such as goods or services); however, the term can also refer to anything that is used to produce products. It can also be used as an ...
to produce goods and services has historically varied greatly. Under capitalism, according to Marx, the ''productive powers of labour'' appear as the ''creative power of capital''. Indeed, "labour power at work" becomes a component of capital, it functions as working capital. Work becomes just work, workers become an abstract labour force, and the control over work becomes mainly a
management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...
prerogative.


Definition

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
introduces the concept in chapter 6 of the first volume of ''
Capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
'', as follows: :"By labour-power or capacity for labour is to be understood the aggregate of those mental and physical capabilities existing in a human being, which he exercises whenever he produces a
use-value Use value (german: Gebrauchswert) or value in use is a concept in classical political economy and Marxist economics. It refers to the tangible features of a commodity (a tradeable object) which can satisfy some human requirement, want or need, o ...
of any description." He adds further on that: :"Labour-power, however, becomes a reality only by its exercise; it sets itself in action only by working. But thereby a definite quantity of human muscle, nerve. brain, &c., is wasted, and these require to be restored." Another explanation of labour-power can be found in the introduction and second chapter of Marx's ''
Wage Labour and Capital "Wage Labour and Capital" (German: ''Lohnarbeit und Kapital'') was an 1847 lecture by the critic of political economy and philosopher Karl Marx, first published as articles in the ''Neue Rheinische Zeitung'' in April 1849. It is widely considered ...
'' (1847). Marx also provided a short exposition of labour power in ''
Value, Price and Profit "Value, Price and Profit" (German: "Lohn, Preis und Profit") is a transcript of an English-language lecture series delivered to the First International Working Men's Association on June 20 and 27, 1865 by Karl Marx. The text was written between t ...
'' (1865).


Versus labour

Marx adapted a distinction, in Hegel's ''
Elements of the Philosophy of Right ''Elements of the Philosophy of Right'' (german: Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts) is a work by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel published in 1820, though the book's original title page dates it to 1821. Hegel's most mature statement of his ...
'' between labour power (''Arbeitskraft'') and ''
labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
'' (''Arbeit'') and gave this distinction a new significance. For Marx, ''Arbeitskraft'', which he sometimes instead refers to as ''Arbeitsvermögen'' ("labour-ability" or "labour-capacity") refers to a "force of nature": the physical ''ability'' of human beings and other living things to perform work, including mental labour and skills such as manual dexterity, in addition to sheer physical exertion. Labour power is, in this sense, also the aspect of labour that becomes a commodity within capitalist society and is alienated from labourers when it is sold to capitalists. By contrast, "labour" may refer to all or any activity by humans (and other living creatures) that is concerned with producing goods or services (or what Marx calls
use-value Use value (german: Gebrauchswert) or value in use is a concept in classical political economy and Marxist economics. It refers to the tangible features of a commodity (a tradeable object) which can satisfy some human requirement, want or need, o ...
s). In this sense, the usage of labour (''per se'') in
Marxian economics Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a Heterodox economics, heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx, Karl Marx's Critique of political economy#Marx's critique of politic ...
is somewhat similar to the later concept, in
neoclassical economics Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics in which the production, consumption and valuation (pricing) of goods and services are observed as driven by the supply and demand model. According to this line of thought, the value of a good ...
, of "labour services". The distinction between labour and labour-power, according to Marx, helped to solved a problem that
David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British Political economy, political economist. He was one of the most influential of the Classical economics, classical economists along with Thomas Robert Malthus, Thomas Malthus, Ad ...
had failed to solve, i.e. explaining why the
surplus value In Marxian economics, surplus value is the difference between the amount raised through a sale of a product and the amount it cost to the owner of that product to manufacture it: i.e. the amount raised through sale of the product minus the cost ...
resulting from profit normally arises out of the process of production itself—rather than in the investment of capital (e.g. the advance of money-capital in the form of wages) in labour-power (acquired from labourers). While Marx's concept of labour power has been compared to that of
human capital Human capital is a concept used by social scientists to designate personal attributes considered useful in the production process. It encompasses employee knowledge, skills, know-how, good health, and education. Human capital has a substantial ...
, Marx himself may have considered a concept such as "human capital" to be a reification, the purpose of which was to imply that workers were a kind of capitalist. For instance, in ''Capital Vol. 2'', Marx states:


As commodity

Under capitalism, according to Marx, labour-power becomes a
commodity In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. The price of a comm ...
– it is sold and bought on the market. A worker tries to sell his or her labour-power to an employer, in exchange for a wage or salary. If successful (the only alternative being
unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (human activity), w ...
), this exchange involves submitting to the
authority In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.''The N ...
of the capitalist for a specific period of time. During that time, the worker does actual labour, producing goods and services. The capitalist can then sell these and obtain surplus value; since the wages paid to the workers are lower than the value of the goods or services they produce for the capitalist. Labour power can also be sold by the worker on "own account", in which case he is self-employed, or it can be sold by an intermediary, such as a hiring agency. In principle a ''group'' of workers can also sell their labour-power as an independent contracting party. Some labour contracts are very complex, involving a number of different intermediaries. Normally, the worker is legally the owner of his labour power, and can sell it freely according to his own wishes. However, most often the trade in labour power is regulated by legislation, and the sale may not be truly "free"—it may be a forced sale for one reason or another, and indeed it may be bought and sold against the real wishes of the worker even although he owns his own labour power. Various gradations of freedom and unfreedom are possible, and free wage labour can combine with slave labour or semi-slavery. The concept of labour power as a commodity was first explicitly stated by
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
subjects who are free to sell it, and can enter into labour contracts. Once actualised and consumed through working, the capacity to work is exhausted, and must be replenished and restored. In general, Marx argues that in capitalism the value of labour power (as distinct from fluctuating market prices for work effort) is equal to its ''normal or average (re-)production cost'', i.e. the cost of meeting the established human needs which must be satisfied in order for the worker to turn up for work each day, fit to work. This involves goods and services representing a quantity of labour equal to
necessary labour Surplus labour (German: ''Mehrarbeit'') is a concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. It means labour performed in excess of the labour necessary to produce the means of livelihood of the worker ("necessary labour"). The "su ...
or the
necessary product Surplus product (german: Mehrprodukt, links=no) is an economic concept explicitly theorised by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. Roughly speaking, it is the extra goods produced above the amount needed for a community of workers to ...
. It represents an average cost of living, an average living standard. The general concept of the "value of labour power" is necessary because both the conditions of the sale of labour power, and the conditions under which goods and services are purchased by the worker with money from a salary, can be affected by numerous circumstances. If, for example, the state imposes a tax on consumer goods and services (an indirect tax or consumption tax such as
value-added tax A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. It is levied on the price of a product or service at each stage of production, distribution, or sale to the end ...
or goods and services tax), then what the worker can buy with his wage-money is reduced. Or, if price inflation increases, then again the worker can buy less with his wage money. The point is that this can occur quite ''independently'' of how much a worker is actually paid. Therefore, the ''standard of living'' of a worker can rise or fall quite independently of how much he is paid—simply because goods and services become more expensive or cheaper to buy, or because he is blocked from access to goods and services. Included in the value of labour power is both a ''physical'' component (the minimum physical requirements for a healthy worker) and a ''moral-historical'' component (the satisfaction of needs beyond the physical minimum which have become an established part of the lifestyle of the average worker). The value of labour power is thus a ''historical norm'', which is the outcome of a combination of factors: productivity; the supply and demand for labour; the assertion of human needs; the costs of acquiring skills; state laws stipulating minimum or maximum wages, the balance of power between
social classes A social class is a grouping of people into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the upper, middle and lower classes. Membership in a social class can for example be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, inco ...
, etc. Buying labour power usually becomes a ''commercially'' interesting proposition only if it can yield more value than it costs to buy, i.e. employing it yields a net positive return on capital invested. However, in Marx's theory, the value-creating function of labour power is not its ''only'' function; it also importantly ''conserves'' and ''transfers'' capital value. If labour is withdrawn from the workplace for any reason, typically the value of capital assets deteriorates; it takes a continual stream of work effort to maintain and preserve their value. When materials are used to make new products, part of the value of materials is also transferred to the new products. Consequently, labour power may be hired not "because it creates more value than it costs to buy", but simply because it ''conserves the value of a capital asset'' which, if this labour did not occur, would decline in value by an even greater amount than the labour cost involved in maintaining its value; or because it is a necessary expense which ''transfers the value of a capital asset'' from one owner to another. Marx regards such labour as " unproductive" in the sense that it creates no new net addition to total capital value, but it may be essential and indispensable labour, because without it a capital value would reduce or disappear. The larger the stock of assets which is neither an input nor an output to real production, and the wealthier society's elite becomes, the more labour is devoted only to ''maintaining'' the mass of capital assets rather than increasing its value.


Wages

Marx regards money-wages and salaries as the ''price'' of labour power (though workers can also be paid "in kind"), normally related to hours worked or output produced. That price may contingently be higher or lower than the value of labour power, depending on market forces of supply and demand, on skill monopolies, legal rules, the ability of negotiate, etc. Normally, unless government action prevents it, high unemployment will lower wages, and
full employment Full employment is a situation in which there is no cyclical or unemployment#Cyclical unemployment, deficient-demand unemployment. Full employment does not entail the disappearance of all unemployment, as other kinds of unemployment, namely Structu ...
will raise wages, in accordance with the laws of supply and demand. But wages can also be reduced through high price inflation and consumer taxes. Therefore, a distinction must always be drawn between ''nominal gross wages'' and ''real wages'' adjusted for tax and price inflation, and indirect tax imposts must be considered. The labour-costs of an employer are not the same as the real buying power a worker acquires through working. An employer usually also has to pay taxes & levies to the government in respect of workers hired, which may include social security contributions or superannuation benefits. In addition there are often also administrative costs. So, in the United States for example, out of the ''total'' expenditure on labour by employers, the workers get about 60% as take-home pay, but about 40% consists of taxes, benefits and ancillary costs. Employers may be able to claim back part of the surcharge on labour by means of various tax credits, or because the tax on business income is lowered. There is typically a constant conflict over the level of wages between employers and employees, since employers seek to limit or reduce wage-costs, while workers seek to increase their wages, or at least maintain them. How the level of wages develops depends on the demand for labour, the level of unemployment, and the ability of workers and employers to organise and take action with regard to pay claims. Marx regarded wages as the "external form" of the value of labour power. The compensation of workers in capitalist society could take all kinds of different forms, but there was always both a paid and unpaid component of labour performed. The "ideal" form of wages for capitalism, he argued, were ''piece wages'' because in that case the capitalist paid only for labour which directly created those outputs adding value to his capital. It was the most efficient form of
exploitation of labour Exploitation of labour (also known as labor) is a concept defined as, in its broadest sense, one agent taking unfair advantage of another agent. It denotes an unjust social relationship based on an asymmetry of power or unequal exchange of value be ...
power.


Consumption

When labour power has been purchased and an employment contract signed, normally it is not yet paid for. First, labour power must be put to work in the production process. The employment contract is only a condition for uniting labour power with the means of production. From that point on, Marx argues, labour power at work is ''transformed into capital'', specifically
variable capital Constant capital (c), is a concept created by Karl Marx and used in Marxian political economy. It refers to one of the forms of capital invested in production, which contrasts with variable capital (v). The distinction between constant and vari ...
which accomplishes the
valorisation In Marxism, the valorisation or valorization of capital is the increase in the value of capital assets through the application of value-forming labour in production. The German original term is "''Verwertung''" (specifically ''Kapitalverwertung'') ...
process. Functioning as variable capital, living labour creates both
use value Use value (german: Gebrauchswert) or value in use is a concept in classical political economy and Marxist economics. It refers to the tangible features of a commodity (a tradeable object) which can satisfy some human requirement, want or need, or ...
s and new value, conserves the value of
constant capital Constant capital (c), is a concept created by Karl Marx and used in Marxian political economy. It refers to one of the forms of capital invested in production, which contrasts with variable capital (v). The distinction between constant and var ...
assets, and transfers part of the value of materials and equipment used to the new products. The result aimed for is the valorisation of invested capital, i.e. other things being equal, the value of capital is maintained and has also increased through the activity of living labour. At the end of the working day, labour power has been more or less consumed, and must be restored through rest, eating and drinking, and recreation. Medical estimates of the average holiday time necessary for fulltime workers to fully recuperate in a physiological and psychological sense from work stress during the year differ from country to country; but as an approximate gauge, three weeks continuous holiday is physiologically optimal for the average worker. ILO statistics show a wide range of average hours worked and average holidays for different countries; for example, Korean workers work the most hours per year, and Americans have fewer formal holidays than West Europeans. Several researchers have questioned however to what extent additional hours worked really increase the marginal productivity of labour; particularly in services, the work that gets done in five days could often also be done in four. The most difficult aspect to measure is the ''intensity'' of work, though some argue the incidence of work accidents are a reliable yardstick. If workers are laid off by an organization, but the organization continues to produce the same amount of output or services as before, or even more, with the same technology, we can often conclude that the intensity of work must have increased.


Reproduction

Marx himself argued that: This understanding, however, only captures the sense in which the reproduction of labour power comes at no cost to capitalists, like the reproduction of ecological conditions, but unlike the reproduction of, say, machine bolts and plastic wrap. Elites and governments have always sought to actively intervene or mediate in the process of the reproduction of labour power, through family legislation, laws regulating sexual conduct, medical provisions, education policies, and housing policies. Such interventions always carry an economic cost, but that cost can be socialized or forced upon workers themselves, especially women. In these areas of civil society, there has been a constant battle between conservatives, social reformists and radicals. Marxist-Feminists have argued that in reality, household (domestic) labour by housewives which forms, maintains and restores the capacity to work is a large "free gift" to the capitalist economy.
Time use survey A time-use survey is a statistical survey which aims to report data on how, on average, people spend their time. Objectives The objective of the Time-Use survey is to identify, classify and quantify the main types of activity that people engag ...
s show that formally unpaid and voluntary labour is a very large part of the total hours worked in a society. Markets depend on that unpaid labour to function at all. Some feminists have therefore demanded that the government pay "wages for housework". This demand conflicts with the legal framework of the government in capitalist society, which usually assumes a financial responsibility only for the upkeep of "citizens" and "families" lacking other sources of income or subsistence. Other social scientists have tackled this issue from a supercapitalist perspective. Economist Shirley P. Burggraf’s
parental dividend The parental dividend is a policy proposal first suggested by economist Shirley P. Burggraf during a Bunting Fellowship at Radcliffe College. It proposes replacing the current generalized labor market funding apparatus of the US Social Securit ...
concept proposes the replacement of existing government payments to the elderly based on an individual’s payroll tax contributions (e.g. US Social Security), with a new system granting retirement benefits proportional to the income of one’s own children. Such a system could theoretically introduce a return on investment for
reproductive labor Reproductive labor or work is often associated with care giving and domestic housemaking, housework roles including cleaning, cooking, child care, and the unpaid domestic worker, domestic labor force. The term has taken on a role in feminist phil ...
, thereby incentivizing the care and rearing of children.


The role of the state

The state can influence both the value and price of labour-power in numerous different ways, and normally it regulates wages and working conditions in the labour market to a greater or lesser extent. It can do so for example by: *Stipulating minimum and maximum wage rates for work. *Stipulating maximum and minimum working hours, and the retirement age. *Stipulating minimum requirements for working conditions, workplace health and safety issues and the like. *Stipulating requirements for labour contracts, trade union organization and wage bargaining. *Legally defining the civil rights and entitlements of the workers. *Adjusting direct and indirect tax rates, levies and tariffs for wage earners and employers in various ways. *Adjusting social insurance policies, pension charges/claims and the like. *Instituting and adjusting unemployment benefits and other social benefits. *Subsidizing workers or their employers in various ways through eligibility to various benefits or supplements to salary. *Influencing the general price level, by means of
fiscal policy In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government revenue collection (taxes or tax cuts) and expenditure to influence a country's economy. The use of government revenue expenditures to influence macroeconomic variables ...
and
monetary policy Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to control either the interest rate payable for very short-term borrowing (borrowing by banks from each other to meet their short-term needs) or the money supply, often a ...
, or by instituting
price controls Price controls are restrictions set in place and enforced by governments, on the prices that can be charged for goods and services in a market. The intent behind implementing such controls can stem from the desire to maintain affordability of good ...
for consumer goods and services. *Regulating the consumption of goods and services by workers. *Policing workers on the job and off-work, and prosecuting criminal activity with respect to workers' lives. *Requiring military service from young workers at fixed pay rates. *Creating additional jobs and employment by means of various policies, or, permitting unemployment to grow. *Encouraging or preventing labour mobility and job mobility. *Permitting or preventing the inflow of immigrant workers, or the emigration of workers. *Stipulating legal requirements relating to the accommodation, health, sex life, family situation and pregnancy of workers. Marx was very aware of this and in ''
Das Kapital ''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in Historical mater ...
'' provides many illustrations, often taken from the
Blue Book A blue book or bluebook is an almanac, buyer's guide or other compilation of statistics and information. The term dates back to the 15th century, when large blue velvet-covered books were used for record-keeping by the Parliament of England. The ...
s and factory inspector's reports. Part of the role of the state is to secure those general (collective) conditions for the reproduction and maintenance of workers which individuals and private enterprise cannot secure by themselves for one reason or another—for example, because: *providing those conditions practically requires an authority which stands above ''competing'' interests. *meeting the conditions is too ''costly'' for private agencies, requiring investment funds not available to them. *it is ''technically'' not possible to privatize those conditions. *the conditions that have to be supplied are not sufficiently ''profitable'', or ''too risky'' for private agencies. *there is a specific ''political'' or ''moral'' reason why the state should intervene. However, Marx did not provide a general theory of the state and the labour market. He intended to write a separate book on the subject of wages and the labour market (see ''Capital Vol. 1'', Penguin edition, p. 683), but did not accomplish it, mainly because of bad health. Nevertheless, Marx made quite clear his belief that capitalism "overturns all the legal or traditional barriers that would prevent it from buying this or that kind of labour-power as it sees fit, or from appropriating this or that kind of labour" (''Ibid''., p. 1013). It is possible—apart from bad health—that he did not write a general critique of the state, because he lived himself as an
exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
in Britain, and therefore, he might have got into major trouble personally, if he had criticized the state publicly in his writings in ways not acceptable to the British state. In modern times, the fact that the state has a big effect on wages and the value of labour power has given rise to the concepts of the
social wage Guaranteed minimum income (GMI), also called minimum income (or mincome for short), is a social-welfare system that guarantees all citizens or families an income sufficient to live on, provided that certain eligibility conditions are met, typicall ...
and collective consumption. If the state claims just as much money from workers through taxes and levies as it pays out to them, then it is of course doubtful whether the state really "pays a social wage". However, more often the state ''redistributes'' income from one group or workers to another, reducing the income of some and increasing that of others.


Quotation by Marx on the value of labour power and classical political economy


Labour market flexibilisation

The commercial value of human labour power is strongly linked to the assertion of human needs by workers as citizens. It is not simply a question of
supply and demand In microeconomics, supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a Market (economics), market. It postulates that, Ceteris paribus, holding all else equal, in a perfect competition, competitive market, the unit price for a ...
here, but of human needs which must be met. Therefore,
labour costs A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as '' minimum wage'', ''prevailing wage'', and ''yearly bonuses,'' and remune ...
have ''never'' been simply an "economic" or "commercial" matter, but also a moral, cultural and political issue. In turn, this has meant that governments have typically strongly regulated the sale of labour power with laws and rules for labour contracts. These laws and rules affect e.g. the
minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...
, wage bargaining, the operation of
trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
s, the obligations of employers in respect of employees, hiring and firing procedures, labour taxes, and
unemployment benefits Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployment, unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are fun ...
. This has led to repeated criticism from employers that labour markets are over-regulated, and that the costs and obligations of hiring labour weigh too heavily on employers. Moreover, it is argued that over-regulation prevents the free movement of labour to where it is really necessary. If labour markets were deregulated by removing excessive legal restrictions, it is argued that costs to business would be reduced and more labour could be hired, thereby increasing
employment Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...
opportunities and
economic growth Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy in a financial year. Statisticians conventionally measure such growth as the percent rate of ...
. However, trade union representatives often argue that the real effect of deregulation is to reduce wages and conditions for workers, with the effect of reducing market demand for products. In turn, the effect would be lower economic growth and a decline in living standards, with increased casualisation of labour and more "contingent labour". It is argued that, because the positions of employees and employers in the market are unequal (it is usually easier for an employer to loose an employee than an employee to loose an employer), employees must be legally protected against undue exploitation. Otherwise employers will simply hire workers as and when it suits them, without regard for their needs as citizens. A further twist in some countries is that unions are part of the political establishment, and not interested in collecting complaints and suggestions from individual employees, employing staff in proportion to dues received, backing employees' legal cases, or rocking the boat in their public statements. For example, in China some workers are in prison for criticising the official unions. Often the demand for "
labour market flexibility The degree of labour market flexibility is the speed with which labour markets adapt to fluctuations and changes in society, the economy or production. This entails enabling labour markets to reach a continuous equilibrium determined by the inter ...
" is combined with the demand for strong
immigration control Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...
s, to block any movement of labour which would be only a burden for
capital accumulation Capital accumulation is the dynamic that motivates the pursuit of profit, involving the investment of money or any financial asset with the goal of increasing the initial monetary value of said asset as a financial return whether in the form o ...
. The term "flexibility" is used because, while capital must be able to move freely around the globe, the movement of labour must be strictly controlled. If that control does not exist, it is argued, it could mean additional costs to employers and taxpayers.


Criticism

It has been argued by
Ian Steedman Ian Steedman (born 1941, in London) was for many years a professor of economics at the University of Manchester before moving down the road to Manchester Metropolitan University. He retired from there at the end of 2006, but was appointed as an eme ...
that Marx's own concept of labour power was in truth very ''similar'' to that of David Ricardo and
Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——— ...
and, therefore, that Marx was not saying anything really new. However, Marx's interpretation is (as he himself said) ''different'' from the "natural price of labour" of the classical political economists, because the "free play of market forces" does not gravitate spontaneously and automatically toward the "natural price" (the value) of labour power. Precisely because labour power is a unique and peculiar commodity, being lodged in the living worker, it does ''not'' conform to all the same laws as other kinds of commodities. Depending on social conditions, labour power may ''durably'' trade at prices well above, or below, its real value. Marx only assumed that labour power traded at its value, in order to show that even if that was the case, the worker was still economically exploited. But he was well aware that often labour power did not trade at its value, either because of unfavourable wage-bargaining conditions or because of labour scarcity. A recent criticism by Prof.
Marcel van der Linden Marcel Marius van der Linden (born 9 October 1952)Prof. dr. M.M. van der Linden, 1952 -
at the UvA ...
is as follows: "Marx's thesis is based on two dubious assumptions, namely that labour needs to be offered for sale by the person who is the actual bearer and owner of such labour, and that the person who sells the labour sells nothing else. Why does this have to be the case? Why can labour not be sold by a party other than the bearer? What prevents the person who provides labour (his or her own or that of somebody else) from offering packages combining the labour with labour means? And why can a slave not perform wage labour for his master at the estate of some third party?" This difficulty was first noted in research conducted during the 1980s by Tom Brass, gathered together in his 1999 book. The buying and selling of human work effort can and has taken many more different forms than Marx acknowledges—especially in the area of services. A modern
information society An information society is a society where the usage, creation, distribution, manipulation and integration of information is a significant activity. Its main drivers are information and communication technologies, which have resulted in rapid inf ...
makes possible all kinds of new forms of
hustling Hustling is the deceptive act of disguising one's skill in a sport or game with the intent of luring someone of probably lesser skill into gambling (or gambling for higher than current stakes) with the hustler, as a form of both a confidence tri ...
. Marx said himself that "Above all apitalismoverturns all the legal or traditional barriers that would prevent it from buying this or that kind of labour-power as it sees fit, or from appropriating this or that kind of labour".Karl Marx, ''
Capital, Volume I ''Capital. A Critique of Political Economy. Volume I: The Process of Production of Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie Erster Band. Buch I: Der Produktionsprocess des Kapitals) is the first of three treatises that ma ...
'', Pelican edition 1976, p. 1013).
The concept of the value of labour power referred to the ''underlying economic relationship'', not to be confused with the formalities of all the kinds of labour contracts which are possible.


See also

* Abstract labour and concrete labour *
Compensation of employees {{no footnotes, date=April 2010 Compensation of employees (CE) is a statistical term used in national accounts, balance of payments statistics and sometimes in corporate accounts as well. It refers basically to the total gross (pre-tax) wages paid b ...
*
Reserve army of labour Reserve army of labour is a concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy. It refers to the unemployed and underemployed in capitalist society. It is synonymous with "industrial reserve army" or "relative surplus population", except that t ...
*
Surplus labour Surplus labour (German: ''Mehrarbeit'') is a concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. It means labour performed in excess of the labour necessary to produce the means of livelihood of the worker ("necessary labour"). The "su ...
*
Surplus product Surplus product (german: Mehrprodukt, links=no) is an economic concept explicitly theorised by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. Roughly speaking, it is the extra goods produced above the amount needed for a community of workers to ...
*
Wage labour Wage labour (also wage labor in American English), usually referred to as paid work, paid employment, or paid labour, refers to the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labour power under ...


Notes


References

* Samuel Bowles &
Herbert Gintis Herbert Gintis (February 11, 1940 – January 5, 2023) was an American economist, behavioral scientist, and educator known for his theoretical contributions to sociobiology, especially altruism, cooperation, epistemic game theory, gene-culture co ...
, "The Problem with Human Capital Theory—A Marxian Critique", ''
American Economic Review The ''American Economic Review'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Economic Association. First published in 1911, it is considered one of the most prestigious and highly distinguished journals in the field of ec ...
'', vol. 65(2), pages 74–82, (1975

*
Tom Brass Tom Brass is an academic who has written widely on peasant studies. For many years he was at the University of Cambridge as an affiliated lecturer in their Faculty of Social and Political Sciences and at Queens' College, Cambridge as their Dir ...
, ''Towards a Comparative Political Economy of Unfree Labour: Case Studies and Debates.'' (Frank Cass, London, 1999). *Tom Brass and Marcel Van Der Linden (eds.), ''Free and Unfree Labour: The Debate Continues'' (International and Comparative Social History, 5). New York: Peter Lang AG, 1997. *
Harry Braverman Harry Braverman (1920 – 1976) Agitating during the Red Scare After serving in the shipbuilding industry during World War II, Braverman began to deepen his commitment to revolutionary struggle, joining the first Trotskyist party in the United ...
, ''Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century''. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974. *''The Critical Lawyer's Handbook''

*
Ben Fine Ben Fine (born 1948) is Professor of Economics at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. Background Fine was born in Coventry in 1948. One of six brothers, he and all but one other followed their father and studied m ...
, ''Labour Market Theory: A Constructive Reassessment''. Routledge, London, 1998. *Bonnie Fox, ''Hidden in the Household: Women's Domestic Labour Under Capitalism'', Women's Press, 1980. *
Ian Gough Ian Gough (born 10 November 1976) is a former Wales international rugby union rugby player. His usual position was lock forward. He made his debut for the Wales national rugby union team against South Africa in 1998, and was a regular thereafter, ...
& Leslie Doyal, ''A Theory of Human Need'', Macmillan Press Ltd. 1991. *Ian Gough, ''Global Capital, Human Needs and Social Policies: Selected Essays 1994-99'' London: Palgrave, 2000. *
Geoffrey Hodgson Geoffrey Martin Hodgson (born 28 July 1946, Watford) is Emeritus Professor in Management at the London campus of Loughborough University, and also the editor-in-chief of the ''Journal of Institutional Economics.'' Hodgson is recognised as one o ...
, ''Capitalism, Value and Exploitation'' (Martin Robertson, Oxford, 1982). *
Makoto Itoh is a Japanese economist and is considered internationally to be one of the most important scholars of Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political th ...
, ''The Basic Theory of Capitalism: The Forms and Substance of the Capitalist Economy''. Barnes & Noble, 1988. * Kenneth Lapides, ''Marx's Wage Theory in Historical Perspective: Its Origins, Development, and Interpretation''. Westport: Praeger 1998. *Marcel van der Linden, ''The Workers and the World; Essays toward a Global Labour History''. Leiden: Brill, 2008. *
Ernest Mandel Ernest Ezra Mandel (; also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter (5 April 1923 – 20 July 1995), was a Belgian Marxian economist, Trotskyist activist and theorist, and Holocaust survivor. He fo ...
, The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx. Monthly Review Press, 1969. *
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
, ''
Das Kapital ''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in Historical mater ...
'', Volume 1. *
Roman Rosdolsky Roman Osipovich Rosdolsky ( uk, Рома́н О́сипович Роздо́льський ''Roman Osipovič Rozdol's'kyj'') (Lemberg, July 19, 1898 – Detroit, October 20, 1967) was a prominent Ukrainian Marxian scholar, historian and politica ...
, ''The Making of Marx's "Capital"''. London: Pluto Press, 1977. * Bob Rowthorn, "Marx's Theory of Wages", a chapter in Bob Rowthorn, ''Capitalism, Conflict, and Inflation'', Lawrence & Wishart, London. *
Ian Steedman Ian Steedman (born 1941, in London) was for many years a professor of economics at the University of Manchester before moving down the road to Manchester Metropolitan University. He retired from there at the end of 2006, but was appointed as an eme ...
, "Marx on Ricardo", in: Ian Bradley and Michael Howard (eds), Classical and Marxian Political Economy—Essays in honour of Ronald L. Meek". London: Macmillan, 1982. * Peter Scholliers (ed.), ''Real wages in 19th and 20th Century Europe; Historical and comparative perspectives''. New York; Berg, 1989. {{Syndicalism Marxian economics