Wage labour is the
socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their
labour under a
contract (
employment), and the employer buys it, often in a
labour market.
[1][Need quotation on talk to verify]It is the effort that people devote to a task for which they are paid
[2] The products of labour become the employer's property. A
wage labourer is a person whose primary means of income is to sell labour in this way.
Although there are antecedents in many stages of historical development wage labour is primarily associated with capitalism.
The phrase is also sometimes used to mean the labour done for an employer in exchange for a wage.
The most common form of wage labour currently is a contract in which a free worker sells his labour for a predetermined time (e.g. a few months or a year), in return for a money-wage or salary.[citation needed] However, wage labour takes many other forms, and many different kinds of contracts and forms of remuneration are possible. Economic history shows a great variety of ways in which labour is traded and exchanged. The differences show up in the form of
