How capitalism steals our time and our labour, and how we can fight back.
An extra 15 minutes work here, another 20 minutes there: wage theft has been described as a silent epidemic blighting the global workforce. And it’s on the rise. In the UK and US alone millions of workers put in billions of unpaid hours amounting to tens of billions in wage theft. The problem pervades throughout the world, in every sector of every country, though it is often worse in low and middle-income countries. But what if wage theft, rather than being a modern bug, is a feature of capitalism itself?
In this original conceptual and empirical work, political economist Matthew Cole uncovers the long history of wage theft, its contemporary machinations and how to overcome it. There are as many ways to steal wages as there are to pay them. But rather than attribute these practices to the actions of a few nefarious employers, Cole shows how wage theft is baked into the very working of the economy. But it doesn't have to be this way. The modern economy has a history, and we can change it. Unpaid explains why wage theft occurs, how employers get away with it, and what we can do to fight back.
Arvustused
A searing and revelatory unmasking of the despicable reality of modern capitalism. Few books are able to make complex ideas so accessible - yet this is one of them -- Owen Jones Passionately political. A vital read for anyone who works for a living -- Gavin Mueller, author of Breaking Things at Work An absolutely essential guide to capitalist class relations. Unpaid unflinchingly catalogues the reality of labour exploitation under capitalism, presenting Marx's most important ideas in a clear, succinct and compelling way -- Grace Blakeley, author of Vulture Capitalism The future is being stolen from us, day by day. The glorious technological future we are constantly being told is imminent is in fact, Matt Cole reminds us, built with unpaid labor. In this deeply researched and meticulously argued book, Cole provides a sharpened blade with which to take on the techno-oligarchs (and ordinary bad bosses, too) -- Sarah Jaffe, author of From the Ashes and Work Wont Love You Back
Muu info
Why work doesn't pay
Preface
Introduction: A Fair Days Wage
1 The State of Wage Theft
2 Technoligarchy
3 Lineages of Unpaid Labour
4 Property is Still Theft
5 The Commodification of Labour and its Limits
6 Rethinking Wage Theft
7 Another Work is Possible
Conclusion: Expropriating the Future
Matthew Cole is an Assistant Professor of Technology, Work and Employment at the University of Sussex and a life-long trade unionist. His research revolves around the political economy of work and technology, with a particular focus on wage theft. His writing has been published in Jacobin, Novara, Vice, OpenDemocracy, the Independent, Salvage, and in various academic journals.
