The *Traditionale* ("Just-in-time Marx translation")
[...]
What is a wage?
How is it determined?
If one asked workers: "How high is your wage?" this one would answer this: "I receive 1 mark for the working day from my employer", that one would answer "I receive two marks" and so on. Due to the different branches of industry to which they belong,
they would receive different sums of money for the execution of a particular labor, for example for the spinning of a yard of canvas or for the setting of a page of print, which they receive from every conceivable employer. On account of the diversity of
these tasks all would agree on this point: the wage is a sum of money, that the capitalist pays for a determinate period of labor or for a determinate task.
The capitalist, it appears, also buys his work with money. For money gets to him his workers. This is merely appearance. What capitalists in actuality exchange money for is labor power. This labor power buys the capitalist the use of a day, a week, a
month and the like; and after they have bought it they use it, in that the worker must work during the stipulated time. With such a sum wherein the capitalist has bought their labor power, for example with two marks, would they have bought two pounds
sugar or some other product of a determinate quantity. The two marks, wherewith he has bought twelve hours' use of labor power, are the price of the twelve-hour labor. The labor power is also a value, not more, not less than the sugar. The first one
measures with the clock, the other with the scale.
[...]
From Marx, "Lohnarbeit und Kapital" ("Wages and Capital", 1849)
Original translation
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