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Wage Theft and the Struggle over the Working Day in Hospitality Work

A Typology of Unpaid Labour Time

Bibliographic Data

ID2374669
AuthorsMatt Cole (0000-0002-0639-9767, University of Oxford, corresponding author), Mark Stuart (0000-0003-4962-6496, University of Leeds), Kate Hardy (0000-0003-0429-2701, University of Leeds), David Spencer (0000-0002-7803-6105, University of Leeds)
Year2024
Volume38
Issue1
Pages103-121
Publication date2024-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWork Employment and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0950-0170 • E-ISSN: 1469-8722
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/09500170221111719
OpenAlexW4301394887
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited25

Drawing on Marxist political economy, this article examines wage theft in hospitality work. Through a detailed, qualitative study of workers' experiences in London hotels, a novel typology is developed that reveals how managers extract additional unpaid labour time through wage theft. The article argues that both the legal definition and existing academic formulations of wage theft fail to encompass the full range of ways that employers extract unpaid labour time. They also overlook the systemic dimension of unpaid labour time under capitalism. The article contributes new insights into the sociological dimensions of exploitation by proposing an alternative conceptualisation of wage theft that incorporates both formal violations of the law and the more subtle, informal means by which the theft of wages is secured

Capitalism · Dimension (graph theory · Economics · Emotional labor · Hospitality · Labour economics · Labour law · Management · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Typology · Unpaid work · Wage · Wage labour · Work (physics · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Law

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Unique citing works13
Citations per year4,33
Citation span2023 - 2026 (4)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 13
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