Relative Surplus-Value

The surplus-value produced by shortening the necessary labor-time and correspondingly lengthening the surplus labor-time under the condition that the length of the working-day remains unchanged.

Due to the physiological, social and moral constraints on workers, it is not possible to increase surplus-value by lengthening the working-day excessively. Therefore, in order to increase surplus-value, the capitalist has to shorten the necessary labor-time by methods whereby the equivalent for the wages is produced in less time. The condition for shortening the necessary labor-time is to reduce the value of labor-power, which requires an increase in the productivity of labor in the branches of industry for the maintenance of the means of life needed for the maintenance of the laborer and his family members. Thus, the production of relative surplus-value, which is the result of a general increase in the productivity of labor of society as a whole, requires a radical revolution in the technical processes of labor and the composition of society.