Wage-Labor and Capital.
What are wages, and how are they determined?
If we were to ask the laborers “How much wages do you get?” one would reply, “I get a couple of shillings a day from my employer;” another, “I get half-a-crown” and so on. According to the different trades to which they belong they would name different sums of money which they receive from their particular employers, either for working for a certain length of time or for performing a certain piece of work; for example, either for weaving a yard of cloth, or for setting up a certain amount of type. But in spite of this difference in their statements there is one point in which they would all agree; their wages are the amount of money which their employer pays them, either for working a certain length of time or for a certain amount of work done.
Thus their employer, it would seem, buys their labor for money. For money they sell their labor to him. But this is mere appearance. What they really sell to the employer for money, is their labor-power. This labor-power the employer buys for a day, week, month &c. And haying bought it, he uses it by making the laborer work during a stipulated period of time…. With the same sum for which the employer
