Contributions to the debate on the role of the real wage in the accumulation of capital in Argentina. Evidence of the sale of labor force below its value

Abstract

The Argentine average real wage started a period of stagnation and regression after an almost uninterrupted growth between 2003 and 2013. In this context, this article aims to analyze whether this movement is a circumstantial phenomenon or if, on the contrary, it is explained by the role of wages in the accumulation of capital in Argentina. To this goal, the authors adopt a long-term perspective to analyze the trend, volatility, and level in international terms, considering purchasing power parity. The main results indicate that up to the mid- 1970s the trend is increasing, although volatile, at that time the wage started a deeply negative road until the end of the convertibility, with a significant increase in its volatility. The improvement in the recent decade barely managed to recover the level of real wages prior to the military dictatorship, with a notable increase in the wage gap in international terms. From this we reaffirm that the real wage plays the role of an additional source of compensation for the lag of productivity which characterizes the national economy at times of stagnation or retreat of the appropriate land rent, a role that since the mid-1970s took the general form of the sale of labor power below its value, with varying intensity in time. On this basis, it concludes that the current recession is not circumstantial, but finds its reason in the role that the wage plays in the reproduction of the accumulation of capital in Argentina