Capital expands by not paying workers for part of their labor

Evidence

The capitalist pays for the commodity of labor power, but not for the value workers actually produce. For example, during their eight-hour shift, Kellogg’s factory workers produce cereals and snacks worth thousands of dollars but are paid only 120 a day. A Starbucks employee may be paid 100 a day, but in the same period they may sell $1,000 worth of coffee, generating profits that go directly to the multinational corporation. In both cases, employees keep working long after the value they have generated for the company covers their wages. In other words, capital expands not through equal exchange, as the market perspective suggests, but precisely through its opposite: by not paying workers for a portion of their labor. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 104

Categorization

• SEED: The Starbucks 100-pay-1000-coffee example and Kellogg’s figures are concrete, teachable numbers usable in a polemical essay or explainer.
• CANDY: The Starbucks barista making 100 while selling 1,000 of coffee is a vivid, tweetable illustration of unpaid labor.
• XREF: connects to: Capital raises exploitation by shrinking the paid share of a fixed workday — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 114; Growth rests on workers selling labor for less than the value they create — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 95; Pure economists recast capital as private saving rather than extracted unpaid labor — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 225 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Capital raises exploitation by shrinking the paid share of a fixed workday #corroborates (0.95) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 114
• Growth rests on workers selling labor for less than the value they create #corroborates (0.92) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 95
• Pure economists recast capital as private saving rather than extracted unpaid labor #expands (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 225