Objective. To analyze the labor reform in Brazil and Chile in the last 5 years and its relationship with the overexploitation of work. Methodology. Documentary analysis of official sites of the governments of the countries in question and theoretical research of texts and authors that address the subject were used for the methodology. Results. It was found that changes in labor laws reinforce precarious, poorly paid work maintaining high rates of income concentration and high rates of poverty, dependence on external capital, subordinate position in the international division of labor and guarantee of the expropriation of socially produced wealth through the extraction of relative and absolute surplus value. Conclusion. It is considered that such situation aggravates the features of overexploitation of labor and serves the interests of international capital and its agencies.