title, im paid by the hour so im wondering if its calculable the amount of time id need to be clocked in n not work to match the surplus value extracted from me
or am i stupid n misunderstanding surplus value
this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2025
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There's definitely a lot of consultants, engineers, lawyers, and other PMCs making more than $150k in salary + benefits. A small minority, even of the PMC itself, but it's not unheard of. I've been told quants at top firms make $400k just starting. But I'd argue that this can only exist in industries that predominantly make their revenue from rentseeking (obvious in the case of finance, war profiteers, and corporate lawyers for monopolistic enterprises) rather than the normal capitalist business M-C-M' model, since you can't profit when M' <= M!
In any business, it's possible for a few workers to get paid enough to be in the "ruling class" category, but only a small minority. I suspect this is done to give the illusion of meritocracy and individual progression, but is probably also a function of social closeness. The business could pay every last individual employee less than the surplus it gains from each one on average, but that would firmly align all the workers with each other.