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Crystal Pinho – Assignment 4 – Marx: What are wages?

Essentially anything that holds a trade-value is considered a commodity. Commodities are traded through exchanges. These exchanges are traded through future contracts. Contracts obligate Capital to buy or sell their commodities at a predetermined price on a future date.  These commodities are then priced based on the market value; which is the futures market price of that commodity. Simply the equity of these commodities revolves around the supply and demand.

Marx uses the example of the weaver to illustrate this relation between labor activity and the purchased commodities. Capital supplies the raw materials and facility and hires the weaver as an employee. The weaver applies himself to his work and then turns the raw materials given into cloth. The employer then takes the produced product and sells it for the given predetermined market value, in this case, twenty shillings. The market value of the produced goods does not determine the wage for the employee; the weaver. The weaver agreed and received their earnings prior to the full production, and prior to the sale of the goods. The employee has already received their wages from the money on hand, and not by the market value of their production.

In many cases, a skilled worker is directed to be employed by capital. Whether he does not possess the money on hand to purchase the materials to create his cloth or he has the money and produces the materials but has no clientele or he was unable to produce any profit from the selling of his product. Thus capital purchases the weavers labored power, just like they have purchased their raw materials of yarn and the equipment of loom. After these purchases have been made comes the entitled ownership. The belonging of the labored powered weaver as well as the necessary materials of production of the cloth; is of Capital. The newly employed weaver is now part of the instruments of labor sharing the same playing field as the raw materials of yarn and the equipment of loom. In this respect, he has no share in the cloth produced or the price.

The hours spent weaving does not justify his life. The weavers’ life only then starts after receiving his labor earned wages. In theory, the Capitals commodity (the weaver) sells his ability to work in return for wages. These wages are then used to purchase even more commodities like food and electricity. This is done for mere survival.