Reserve army of labour

The Reserve army of labour, sometimes also referred as Industrial reserve army (IRA) is Karl Marx's term for the pool of unemployed and partly-employed workers in capitalism. The reserve army of labour serves as a pool of potential replacements for those workers who are currently employed, thus enabling the capitalists to maintain a high degree of exploitation of the employed workers by holding against them the threat of dismissal and replacement by someone from the reserve army. The effect is to reduce the standard of life of the working class as a whole. That is why the capitalists are not interested in abolishing the industrial reserve army, which exercises pressure on the labour market and ensures them a supply of cheap labour-power.

See also

• Precariat