Surplus labor (German: Mehrarbeit) is a concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. It means labor performed in excess of the labor necessary to produce the means of livelihood of the worker ("necessary labor"). The "surplus" in this context means the additional labor a worker has to do in their job, beyond earning their own keep. According to Marxian economics, surplus labor is usually uncompensated (unpaid) labor. Marx's first analysis of what surplus labor means appeared in The Poverty of Philosophy (1847), a polemic against the philosophy of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.[1] A much more detailed analysis is presented in the volumes of Theories of Surplus Value and Das Kapital.
^Karl Marx, The poverty of philosophy. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1955, part 3(B).[1]
