Exploitation in Contemporary Capitalism: An Empirical Analysis of the Case of Taiwan

Autor: Jeng Liu, Arthur Sakamoto, Kuo-Hsien Su
Rok vydání: 2010
Předmět:
Zdroj: Sociological Focus. 43:259-281
ISSN: 2162-1128
0038-0237
DOI: 10.1080/00380237.2010.10571379
Popis: Using data for manufacturing firms in Taiwan, we developed a measure of exploitation and analyzed its prevalence in the labor force. Our results indicated that almost two-thirds of the firms in our sample exploit at least some of their workers. For these firms, the average profit rate is 34 percent, but three-fourths of this figure derives from the expropriated wages of their workers. Female and blue-collar workers are the largest groups that are underpaid relative to their productivity (that is, exploited). Managers, professionals, and workers with seniority are not exploited by our definition because our data showed that these groups are paid according to the market value of their productivity, at least on average. Our analysis demonstrates the feasibility of the empirical investigation of exploitation, which should be further considered in future research.
Databáze: OpenAIRE