Necessary Labor-Time

Corresponding to “surplus labor-time”. The labor-time necessary for the maintenance and reproduction of labor-power. In order to maintain their own life and education and that of their families and to keep up their labor-power, workers need necessary goods. The labor consumed in the production of such goods is called necessary labor, and the time taken for this purpose is called necessary labor time.

The length of the necessary labor-time is mainly determined by the productivity of labor. In primitive society, all labor-time of people were necessary labor-time. When the productivity of labor had gradually increased and workers could have a surplus-produce in addition to the necessary produce they produced for themselves, labor-time was divided into two parts: the necessary labor-time and the surplus labor-time. When the total labor-time is constant, the higher the productivity of labor, the less time is taken up by necessary labor and the more time is left over for surplus-labor.

Under the system of exploitation, necessary labor-time is both the time during which the worker creates for himself the material conditions that maintain his existence and the time during which he provides the exploiter with a continuous supply of objects of exploitation.

In class society, necessary labor and surplus-labor have an antagonistic nature, which is manifests itself as class antagonisms in a concentrated manner. The slave-owner appropriated all the results of slaves’ labor and gave them but a small to no more than the amount of the means of life to maintain their physical existence. Feudal lords deprived peasants of all their surplus-produce, and tried every means to take possession of the necessity goods at their disposal. Under the capitalist mode of production, the productivity of labor is much higher than before, and the necessary labor-time is much shorter, but the insatiable capitalist does not shorten the working-day for this reason; on the contrary, he tries to lengthen the working-day by all means.

Under capitalist conditions, labor-power becomes a commodity, and the necessary labor, i.e., the value of the labor-power, is expressed in the form of wage. This completely conceals the boundaries between the necessary and surplus labor-time. Because on the surface, the wage seems to be the remuneration of all the work of the laborer. In fact, even if the labor-power is bought and sold on an equal basis, the wage is only equal to the value of the products created by the laborer in the necessary labor-time. Marx scientifically analyzed the capitalist working-day, revealed the antagonistic relationship between the necessary labor-time and the surplus labor-time and the essence of wages, and theoretically anatomized the secret of capitalist exploitation and class antagonism.

Under the socialist system, workers’ labor-power loses its commodity nature, the wage no longer manifests itself as the value of labor-power, and workers’ necessary labor-time is no longer determined by the value of labor-power; meanwhile, as the scope of workers’ consumption gradually expands, the scope of their necessary labor also expands.

Marx pointed out: “Only by suppressing the capitalist form of production could the length of the working-day be reduced to the necessary labor time. But, even in that case, the latter would extend its limits. On the one hand, because the notion of ‘means of subsistence’ would considerably expand, and the laborer would lay claim to an altogether different standard of life. On the other hand, because a part of what is now surplus-labor, would then count as necessary labor; I mean the labor of forming a fund for reserve and accumulation.”