labor power
Worker's productive ability
Labor power is the capacity for work that a person can sell for wages.
The term comes from Marxist economics, where it's distinguished from labor itself: workers don't sell their actual work but rather their ability to work for a set period.
The employer then extracts value from that capacity.
The factory owner purchased eight hours of labor power daily from each worker.
- workforceAll available workers
- working classManual laborers collectively
- wagesPayment for work
- living wageIncome covering necessities
- exploitationSelfish use of others
sweat · sweat equity · toil · muscle · proletariat · commodity · surplus · Marx · factory · shop floor · clock in · hours · exhaustion · hands · bodies · production · alienation · reserve army