Surplus-value

In Marxian political economy the concept of surplus-value refers to labor that workers do for their capitalist employers beyond what's necessary to produce enough to pay for their wages and benefits (unpaid labor). It is one component of Marx's theory of value relations (commonly taken to be a species of labor theory of value) and is central to his account of exploitation under capitalism. Surplus-value is a macrosocietal concept. In practice, it is divided among profits, interest, and rent and distributed among a large number of individual capitalists.

Total value produced = total labor done = paid labor (the value of labor-power, variable capital) plus unpaid labor (surplus-value).

So surplus-value = total value produced minus paid labor.