A wage at first appears to be just the amount of money which a Capitalist pays a worker in return for a certain amount or period of work. From this, an assumption is made, in which the Capitalist buys the labour of the worker. This is wrong, the Capitalist buys the labour-power of the worker, not the labour. The money given to the worker in exchange for his labour-power could’ve just as easily been used to buy a few kilos of sugar (or any other commodity for that matter).
Labour-power in itself is a commodity, no different from the few kilos of sugar. This commodity of the worker, the labour-power, is exchanged for the commodity of the Capitalist (money). This exchange is expressed in a ratio (for example, 20 dollars for 10 hours of i.e. weaving cloth). This money given to the worker is in fact an expression in which the commodity of labour-power is exchanged for other commodities (vegetables, meat, clothes etc. so long as they are worth the same amount price-wise). Price is the estimation of exchange value expressed in money. Wages are simple the special name for the price of labour-power. The worker gets paid from the already existing wealth of the Capitalist, rather than from the proceeds of the selling of his work (i.e. cloth).
The Capitalist buys the labour-power of the worker just as he bought raw materials and machinery. The worker is no different from the latter. The worker is himself an instrument of production, and hence has no share in the product that he made. Hence, wages are not a share of the worker in the commodities produced by the worker himself. Instead, wages are part of the already existing commodities with which the Capitalist buys a certain amount of labour-power from the worker.
The worker endures this so that he may survive. Since the worker is completely alienated from his labour, he sees this solely as a means of living, and only feels “free” after the work is done, at the dinner table, at the tavern or in bed. Wage-labourers (free-labourers) are different from slaves and serfs in that wage-labourers sell themselves totally in fractions at a time. They submit to the will of the Capitalist class and continually sell themselves in order to live. The worker, in essence, belongs to the Capitalist class as a whole.
