Are Unproductive Workers Not Exploited?

This essay clarifies the relationship between the exploitation of workers and the distinction between productive and unproductive labour. It first defines the meaning of exploitation based on the Marxian labour theory of value and then restates the criteria to distinguish productive and unproductive workers. The latter theoretical clarity provides the ground on which the sole criterion of being exploited becomes the appropriation of surplus labour—even of that of unproductive labourers. The latter part of the article empirically estimates rates of exploitation of those unproductive workers in Turkey’s government, finance and trade sectors.