Karl Marx
Wage Labour and Capital
If several workmen were to be asked: "How much wagesdo you get?", one would reply, "I get two shillings a day", and so on.According to the different branches of industry in which they are employed,they would mention different sums of money that they receive from theirrespective employers for the completion of a certain task; for example,for weaving a yard of linen, or for setting a page of type. Despite thevariety of their statements, they would all agree upon one point: thatwages are the amount of money which the capitalist pays for a certain periodof work or for a certain amount of work.
Consequently, it appears that the capitalist buys their labourwith money, and that for money they sell him their labour. But this is merelyan illusion. What they actually sell to the capitalist for money is theirlabour-power. This labour-power the capitalist buys for a day, a week, amonth, etc. And after he has bought it, he uses it up by letting the workerlabour during the stipulated time. With the same amount of money with whichthe capitalist has bought their labour-power (for example, with two shillings)he could have bought a certain amount of sugar or of any other commodity.The two shillings with which he bought 20 pounds of sugar is the priceof the 20 pounds of sugar. The two shillings with which he bought 12 hours'use of labour-power, is the price of 12 hours' labour. Labour-power, then,is a commodity, no more, no less so than is the sugar. The first is measuredby the clock, the other by the scales.
Their commodity, labour-power, the workers exchange for the commodityof the capitalist, for money, and, moreover, this exchange takes placeat a certain ratio. So much money for so long a use of labour-power. For12 hours' weaving, two shillings. And these two shillings, do they notrepresent all the other commodities which I can buy for two shillings?Therefore, actually, the worker has exchanged his commodity, labour-power,for commodities of all kinds, and, moreover, at a certain ratio. By givinghim two shillings, the capitalist has given him so much meat, so much clothing,so much wood, light, etc., in exchange for his day's work. The two shillingstherefore express the relation in which labour-power is exchanged for othercommodities, the exchange-value of labour-power.
The exchange value of a commodity estimated in money is calledits price. Wages therefore are only a special name for the price of labour-power,and are usually called the price of labour; it is the special name for theprice of this peculiar commodity, which has no other repository than humanflesh and blood.
Let us take any worker; for example, a weaver. The capitalistsupplies him with the loom and yarn. The weaver applies himself to work,and the yarn is turned into cloth. The capitalist takes possession of thecloth and sells it for 20 shillings, for example. Now are the wages ofthe weaver a share of the cloth, of the 20 shillings, of the product ofthe work? By no means. Long before the cloth is sold, perhaps long beforeit is fully woven, the weaver has received his wages. The capitalist, then,does not pay his wages out of the money which he will obtain from the cloth,but out of money already on hand. Just as little as loom and yarn are theproduct of the weaver to whom they are supplied by the employer, just solittle are the commodities which he receives in exchange for his commodity– labour-power – his product. It is possible that the employer found nopurchasers at all for the cloth. It is possible that he did not get eventhe amount of the wages by its sale. It is possible that he sells it veryprofitably in proportion to the weaver's wages. But all that does not concernthe weaver. With a part of his existing wealth, of his capital, the capitalistbuys the labour-power of the weaver in exactly the same manner as, withanother part of his wealth, he has bought the raw material – the yarn– and the instrument of labour – the loom. After he has made these purchases,and among them belongs the labour-power necessary to the production of thecloth he produces only with raw materials and instruments of labour belongingto him. For our good weaver, too, is one of the instruments of labour, andbeing in this respect on a par with the loom, he has no more share in theproduct (the cloth), or in the price of the product, than the loom itselfhas.
Wages, therefore, are not a share of the worker in the commoditiesproduced by himself. Wages are that part of already existing commoditieswith which the capitalist buys a certain amount of productive labour-power.
Consequently, labour-power is a commodity which its possessor,the wage-worker, sells to the capitalist. Why does he sell it? It is inorder to live.
But the putting of labour-power into action – i.e., the work –is the active expression of the labourer's own life. And this life activityhe sells to another person in order to secure the necessary means of life.His life-activity, therefore, is but a means of securing his own existence.He works that he may keep alive. He does not count the labour itself asa part of his life; it is rather a sacrifice of his life. It is a commoditythat he has auctioned off to another. The product of his activity, therefore,is not the aim of his activity. What he produces for himself is not thesilk that he weaves, not the gold that he draws up the mining shaft, notthe palace that he builds. What he produces for himself is wages; andthe silk, the gold, and the palace are resolved for him into a certainquantity of necessaries of life, perhaps into a cotton jacket, into coppercoins, and into a basement dwelling. And the labourer who for 12 hours long,weaves, spins, bores, turns, builds, shovels, breaks stone, carries hods,and so on – is this 12 hours' weaving, spinning, boring, turning, building,shovelling, stone-breaking, regarded by him as a manifestation of life,as life? Quite the contrary. Life for him begins where this activity ceases,at the table, at the tavern, in bed. The 12 hours' work, on the other hand,has no meaning for him as weaving, spinning, boring, and so on, but onlyas earnings, which enable him to sit down at a table, to take his seatin the tavern, and to lie down in a bed. If the silk-worm's object in spinningwere to prolong its existence as caterpillar, it would be a perfect exampleof a wage-worker.
Labour-power was not always a commodity (merchandise). Labour wasnot always wage-labour, i.e., free labour. The slave did not sell his labour-powerto the slave-owner, any more than the ox sells his labour to the farmer.The slave, together with his labour-power, was sold to his owner once forall. He is a commodity that can pass from the hand of one owner to thatof another. He himself is a commodity, but his labour-power is not his commodity.The serf sells only a portion of his labour-power.It is not he who receives wages from the owner of the land; it is ratherthe owner of the land who receives a tribute from him. The serf belongsto the soil, and to the lord of the soil he brings its fruit. The freelabourer, on the other hand, sells his very self, and that by fractions.He auctions off eight, 10, 12, 15 hours of his life, one day like the next,to the highest bidder, to the owner of raw materials, tools, and the meansof life – i.e., to the capitalist. The labourer belongs neither to an ownernor to the soil, but eight, 10, 12, 15 hours of his daily life belong towhomsoever buys them. The worker leaves the capitalist, to whom he hassold himself, as often as he chooses, and the capitalist discharges himas often as he sees fit, as soon as he no longer gets any use, or not therequired use, out of him. But the worker, whose only source of income isthe sale of his labour-power, cannot leave the whole class of buyers, i.e.,the capitalist class, unless he gives up his own existence. He does notbelong to this or that capitalist, but to the capitalist class; and itis for him to find his man – i.e., to find a buyer in this capitalistclass.
Before entering more closely upon the relation of capital to wage-labour,we shall present briefly the most general conditions which come into considerationin the determination of wages.
Wages, as we have seen, are the price of a certain commodity,labour-power. Wages, therefore, are determined by the same laws that determinethe price of every other commodity. The question then is, How is the priceof a commodity determined?
By what is the price of a commodity determined?
Wage Labour and Capital Index