Salários e exploração na teoria marxista do valor

This article explains Marx´s theory of surplus value and exploitation. These variables are aggregates defined by class relations, rather than being derived from individual subsistence needs, wages or profits. It also surveys different conceptions of the value of labour power, the bundle and the share approaches, and finds them wanting on several counts. An alternative is proposed, in which the value of labour power is neither a quantity of goods nor a quantity of money; it is a quantity of value, the abstract labour time spent by the working class producing necessities. This value is determined at the aggregate level, through the exchange between the capitalist and the working class, and the performance of labour and exploitation in production.