Labor-time calculation is a method of economic calculation that uses units of labor time as the basis for accounting and valuation. This method of calculation was advocated by the economists Otto Bauer, Helene Bauer and Otto Leichter as an alternative to calculation in kind.
Otto Leichter criticized in-kind calculation on the basis that rational accounting required a general unit for comparing costs of heterogeneous goods.
The basis for labor-time calculation is found in Karl Marx's analysis of value in capitalism. However, Marx was vehemently opposed to any proposal for using labor-time as a basis for socialist calculation because his concept of socially-necessary labor time was specifically intended as a tool for analyzing extant capitalism. In Marx's view, socialism would operate according to its own economic "laws of motion" distinct from those of capitalism.