---
Title: Wage labor
Description: Form taken by the vast majority of social work under capitalism.
Author: School of Marxism
URL: https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Wage%20labor
---


Form taken by the vast majority of social work under capitalism.

Originally occasional in the pre-capitalist world, it became generalized with the [accumulation](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Accumulation%20of%20capital) of capital and the accompanying emptying of the countryside and industrialization.

Under these new conditions, the [surplus labor](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Surplus%20labor) extracted from the mass of the exploited takes place through the production and sale of [commodities](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Commodity), and the exploited obtain, in return, the part of [capital](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Capital) invested in ensuring the maintenance of their [labor power](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Labor%20power), the [wage](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Wage).