Exploitation of labour

Exploitation is a concept defined as, in its broadest sense, one agent taking unfair advantage of another agent.^[1] When applying this to labour (or labor) it denotes an unjust social relationship based on an asymmetry of power or unequal exchange of value between workers and their employers.^[2] When speaking about exploitation, there is a direct affiliation with consumption in social theory and traditionally this would label exploitation as unfairly taking advantage of another person because of their vulnerable position, giving the exploiter the power.^[3]

Karl Marx's theory of exploitation has been described in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as the most influential theory of exploitation. Marx described exploitation as the theft of economic power in all class-based societies, including capitalism, through the working class (or the proletariat, as Marx called them) being forced to sell their labour.^[1] The two main perspectives when analysing the exploitation of labour are that of Marx and that of Adam Smith, a classical economist. Smith did not see exploitation as an inherent systematic phenomenon in certain economic systems as Marx did, but rather something that stems from a random occurrence in the chaos of the market, such as a monopoly, that will even out by the tendency of the free market towards equilibrium.^[4]