Surplus Value - Absolute Vs. Relative

Absolute Vs. Relative

According to Marx, absolute surplus value is obtained by increasing the amount of time worked per worker in an accounting period. Marx talks mainly about the length of the working day or week, but in modern times the concern is about the number of hours worked per year.

In many parts of the world, as productivity rose, the working classes forced a reduction in the workweek, from 60 hours to 50, 40 or 35 hours; but casualisation and flexibilisation of working hours also permits higher paid workers to work less (a fact of concern to statesmen who worry about international competitiveness, i.e. if we don't work harder our country will lose business).

Relative surplus value is obtained mainly by:

• reducing wages — this can only go to a certain point, because if wages fall below the ability of workers to purchase their means of subsistence, they will be unable to reproduce themselves and the capitalists will not be able to find sufficient labor power.
• reducing the cost of wage-goods by various means, so that wage increases can be curbed.
• increasing the productivity and intensity of labour generally, through mechanisation and rationalisation, yielding a bigger output per hour worked.

The attempt to extract more and more surplus-value from labor on the one side, and on the other side the resistance to this exploitation, are according to Marx at the core of the conflict between social classes, which is sometimes muted or hidden, but at other times erupts in open class warfare and class struggle.