Work as a crime, a resource and a relationship: the confiscation of wages as proceeds of crime

UK law allows the confiscation of wages as proceeds of crime, notably for ‘illegal working’ by undocumented migrants. This article explores the context for criminalising work and confiscating wages, and the arguments against confiscation. It suggests that the confiscation of wages is conceptually, morally, and pragmatically questionable. The justifications for wage confiscation reflect an understanding of work as a finite resource controlled by the state rather than an act or relationship. The arguments against the confiscation of wages reflect the relational and social aspects of work, including the economic necessity to work and work’s potential for coercion and exploitation on the one hand, and dignity and self-realisation on the other. The article further suggests that only when the performance of the job itself is harmful to others may wages be confiscated.