Definition of Direct-Indirect Labor

Labor is a basic element in the production and is defined as the cost of time that workers invest in the process of elaboration of a product. This concept includes wages, risk premiums, nights and overtime, as well as the taxes that are associated with each worker.

In other words, it is the human capital of a company. Traditionally, labor is classified into two sections or headings: direct and indirect.

Difference between the two modalities

The direct modality refers to those workers who participate in the production of a product and have contact with it. Thus, a textile operator, a cloth cutter or a worker cleaning a fabric are examples of direct labor.

On the contrary, those operators who do not expressly intervene in the elaboration of a product but who are necessary in some way, constitute the indirect labor force. In this way, a supervisor in a textile plant does not manipulate the product but intervenes in the transformation process. A factory cleaner would be another example in this category.

The distinction between one modality and the other is important in several ways. On the one hand, it allows business needs to be planned and, on the other hand, it is a way to properly organize the budgets of an entity.

Robotization and universal basic income

Certain routine tasks no longer require labor as we know it. The evolution of robotics and artificial intelligence are generating the destruction of the force labor. Machines can perform mechanical actions without the need to employ workers. Robots are rapidly displacing production operators and in recent years machines have begun to replace more skilled workers.

In this sense, there are robots that do financial analysis and all kinds of intellectual tasks through the use of mathematical algorithms.

If the trend of robotization continues to increase, it is very likely that work activity will cease to exist in its traditional version

For this reason, there is already talk of a universal basic income. This modality of income would be promoted by the state and would guarantee the basic needs of the citizenship.

Today this proposal seems like an unattainable chimera, but it is backed by Nobel Prize-winning economists from economy or by world leaders like Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and Paypal. Some trials have already been carried out in countries such as Finland or Canada with good results.

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