"Al calor del amor en un bar". Explotación, trabajo y plusvalía emocional en la España turística

Abstract

This article analyzes contemporary mechanisms of labor exploitation in the hospitality sector, focusing on the emotional labor performed by waitresses and waiters in bars, cafés and restaurants in Madrid. Based on a corpus of 43 interviews, two key metaphors are identified - the bar as factory and the bar as theater - that allow us to unravel how affective management becomes a central dimension of labor. In dialogue with the Marxist theory of exploitation and the feminist affective turn, the concept of emotional surplus value is developed as a specific form of value extraction based on emotional effort that is neither remunerated nor contractually recognized. This surplus value, of an extra-temporal and intangible nature, increases corporate profit without altering the working day or wages. The article argues that these practices intensify the emotional precariousness of mostly feminized and racialized workers, and questions the limits of classical Marxist theory to explain contemporary exploitation. Finally, it discusses the tensions between emotional authenticity, productive efficiency and everyday governance of the bar, proposing an intersectional reading of the new forms of work and their possible resistance.