What is the rate of surplus value, also known as the rate of exploitation?
The rate of surplus value is the ratio of surplus value to the value of variable capital, or S/V. It can also be thought of as the ratio of surplus labor to necessary labor, where necessary labor is the labor needed to reproduce the means of production used up in a yearly production cycle and the consumption goods which support the workers. A third way of thinking of the rate of surplus value is as the ratio of the labor time for which the capitalists do not pay to the paid labor time: The rate of surplus-value is therefore an exact expression for the degree of exploitation of labour-power by capital, or of the labourer by the capitalist. (Karl Marx 1867, Chapter IX) Therefore the rate of surplus value is also called the rate of exploitation.
