Lazarus layer

English

Noun

Lazarus layer (plural Lazarus layers)

1. (Marxism) An impoverished segment of society that may be forced by necessity to work for a low wage.
   • 1972, Ralph Miliband, John Saville, The Socialist Register, page 188:

     Newly proletarianized workers were available to be exploited, while 'Lazarus layers' of the unemployed kept down wages, making production more profitable.

   • 1995, Kenneth M. Morrison, Marx, Durkheim, Weber: Formations of Modern Social Thought, page 323:

     Marx referred to the reserve army as the 'Lazarus layer' of labor , to be brought back to life when the supply of labor becomes low.

   • 2020, Andy Merrifield, Marx, Dead and Alive: Reading "Capital" in Precarious Times, page 120:

     These ruffians, Marx says, “dwelling in the sphere of pauperism,” are nothing but “the deadweight of the industrial reserve army,” trapped in the Lazarus layers of society and generally not, nor ever likely to be, a progressive political force.