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A wage slave is someone who relies solely on their job for basic needs and lacks other financial assets. They may feel trapped in their job and have no other income sources or insurance benefits. Variations of the term include cubicle and factory slaves.
A wage slave is a slang term describing someone who is completely dependent on wages earned from a job in order to secure and maintain basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. Typically, this individual does not have any other type of financial asset that is earning some sort of yield that may be claimed in the event of a work stoppage. One school of thought also holds that a true wage slave feels trapped in a certain job, believing that he would be unable to secure another position that would pay as much or even better than the current position.
While many people use wages as their primary means of income, the wage slave has no other sources of financial resources to call upon in an emergency. There are no stock holdings to generate periodic dividends, nor interest-earning certificates of deposit with a local financial institution. Often, the wage slave does not have any type of insurance benefit to help compensate for lost wages due to illness or an extended period of unemployment. Unless the individual remains employed and works on a daily basis, the income flow stops and his or her ability to maintain the current level of lifestyle is adversely affected.
Others define the modern wage slave in slightly more liberal terms. Here, the slave may have a modest savings account that earns a small amount of interest each year, or even a few stocks that generate some return from time to time. Despite these modest holdings, the individual is still considered a slave, as these other sources of income are not sufficient to replace the income stream generated by a job. In this understanding, wage slavery ends only when the individual reaches a point where they receive a regular income sufficient to maintain their lifestyle, regardless of the livelihood provided by employment.
There are variations of the term that are used to describe particular types of wage slavery. Office workers who are heavily dependent on their earnings are sometimes called cubicle slaves. Shift workers in manufacturing plants are sometimes known as factory slaves. In most cases, the terms are used to identify one type of financial situation and are not considered representative of an individual’s character or work ethic.
Another characteristic that is sometimes included in the description of a labor slave is a sense that the individual is trapped in his work. Employers who use verbiage and actions to convey the message that the employee is lucky to have the job and that no other employer would ever hire them sometimes fuels this feeling of entrapment. Other times, employees feel they are unable to develop additional skills or talents that would enable them to take on a more lucrative or emotionally satisfying position, so they remain in the same position until circumstances force them to seek employment elsewhere.
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