Refers to those who permanently derive their livelihood on the basis of wage-employment and who, as a result, have the capacity to develop “worker-consciousness,” an attribute that refers to the willingness to join forces in order to demand better pay and working conditions. They are to be distinguished from those who may also seek wage-employment, but only as a supplement to another source of livelihood (e.g., subsistence farming) and who are termed in my classes as quasi-proletariat.