The Exploitation of Work

Abstract Most people who engage in work are hired by an employer and paid a salary or an hourly wage. It is widely believed that, in virtue of being paid objectionably low wages and/or subjected to other poor conditions in their employment, many of these workers are wrongfully exploited. Exploitation is standardly understood to involve taking advantage of a vulnerability in order to obtain benefits. Wrongful exploitation of workers, then, involves wrongfully taking advantage of their vulnerability in order to benefit from their labor. The central question that accounts of the wrong of exploitation must answer, therefore, is what makes it the case that any particular instance of advantage being taken of workers’ vulnerability in order to benefit from their labor is wrongful. In this chapter, the author describes and discusses the most prominent answers to this question that have been defended in recent philosophical literature.