Human history is riddled with forced labor and exploitation. For millennia, enslaved persons played a key role in the economies of the world, both as laborers and as commodities. Today, modern forms of slavery still taint our global supply chains and not few consider their own working conditions as exploitative. Scientifically, several disciplines have contributed to shedding light on exploitative work relationships and their logic by tackling questions like: How can we define exploitation? How are victims recruited and how do exploiters prevent them from freely leaving? Are there lasting effects of a history of exploitation for contemporary societies? In this chapter, we review selected literature from philosophy, economics, and psychology focusing on these and related questions. We provide an overview of how definitions of exploitation have developed from Marx to contemporary thinkers, how these informed theoretical and empirical research in economics, and why workers employed under legally sound contracts can still feel exploited today. The resulting overview identifies important open questions which lie at the heart of ongoing debates in business ethics and beyond.