Matthew Cole, Unpaid: The Past, Present and Future of Wage Theft
Join author, Matthew Cole and writer and editor Amelia Horgan, who will discuss Cole’s new book, published by Verso.
Join author, Matthew Cole and writer and editor Amelia Horgan, who will discuss Cole’s new book, Unpaid: The Past, Present and Future of Wage Theft (2025) Verso Books.
Unpaid upends conventional wisdom about how we value work, exposing wage theft as one of capitalism’s enduring open secrets. From unpaid overtime and under-the-table jobs to algorithmic exploitation, there are as many ways to steal wages as there are to pay them. But what if wage theft isn’t a bug but a feature of capitalism itself?
Across the world, millions of workers exhaust themselves in billions of hours of free labour. As app-based gig work becomes increasingly common, exploitation grows more sophisticated and harder to detect. It doesn’t have to be this way. Blending personal stories with a fresh, accessible take, Unpaid traces the long history of wage theft and reveals how employers continue to get away with it. Matthew Cole shows that wage theft is not just about broken laws but about the nature of property itself. He makes a powerful case for our collective right to reassert our labour-power.
Biographies:
Matthew Cole is an Assistant Professor of Technology, Work and Employment at the University of Sussex and an associate of the Alameda Institute. His research and writing revolves around the political economy of work and technology, with a particular focus on wage theft. He has published various academic book chapters and journal articles on these topics, as well as essays for Jacobin, The Independent, Dissent and Novara, among others.
Amelia Horgan is a writer and editor from London. She is the author of Lost In Work (2021). She recently finished a PhD, also about work. She has written for various publications, including The Guardian, Vice, Jacobin and Parapraxis. She is Principal Editor at the think tank, Common Wealth.
Join author, Matthew Cole and writer and editor Amelia Horgan, who will discuss Cole’s new book, published by Verso.
Join author, Matthew Cole and writer and editor Amelia Horgan, who will discuss Cole’s new book, Unpaid: The Past, Present and Future of Wage Theft (2025) Verso Books.
Unpaid upends conventional wisdom about how we value work, exposing wage theft as one of capitalism’s enduring open secrets. From unpaid overtime and under-the-table jobs to algorithmic exploitation, there are as many ways to steal wages as there are to pay them. But what if wage theft isn’t a bug but a feature of capitalism itself?
Across the world, millions of workers exhaust themselves in billions of hours of free labour. As app-based gig work becomes increasingly common, exploitation grows more sophisticated and harder to detect. It doesn’t have to be this way. Blending personal stories with a fresh, accessible take, Unpaid traces the long history of wage theft and reveals how employers continue to get away with it. Matthew Cole shows that wage theft is not just about broken laws but about the nature of property itself. He makes a powerful case for our collective right to reassert our labour-power.
Biographies:
Matthew Cole is an Assistant Professor of Technology, Work and Employment at the University of Sussex and an associate of the Alameda Institute. His research and writing revolves around the political economy of work and technology, with a particular focus on wage theft. He has published various academic book chapters and journal articles on these topics, as well as essays for Jacobin, The Independent, Dissent and Novara, among others.
Amelia Horgan is a writer and editor from London. She is the author of Lost In Work (2021). She recently finished a PhD, also about work. She has written for various publications, including The Guardian, Vice, Jacobin and Parapraxis. She is Principal Editor at the think tank, Common Wealth.
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Highlights
- 2 hours
- In person
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