This paper discusses the relation of the concepts of slavery and wage labor in classical antiquity. The authors emphasize the dependence of this relation on the conception of a free citizen with the moral ideal of freedom at its center. The article attempts to provide a new explanation of the essence of classical slavery, which takes into account the ethical attitudes of ancient society. As the main thesis, it has been proved that according to the moral ideal of a free person in antiquity, hired labor was more despised than slavery.