How were worker exploited according to Marx's theories?

Answer 1

Basically Marx's theory was that under capitalism the means of production were owned by just a few, wealthy capitalists. The workers had to try to sell their labour power to the capitalists so that they may survive. When a worker goes to work for a capitalist they enter into a metabolic exchange with nature and produce exchange value. The capitalist takes this value and gives only a portion of it back to the worker, the rest of the value, or wealth, is taken by the capitalist as surplus value or profit.

Answer 2

According to Marx's theories, workers were exploited through the extraction of surplus value by capitalists. This means that workers were paid less than the value of the goods or services they produced, with the difference being kept as profit by the capitalist class. Marx argued that this exploitation was inherent in the capitalist mode of production, where the profit motive drove capitalists to maximize profits at the expense of workers' well-being.