The plane problem of the sliding contact of a punch with an elastic foundation when there is friction and wear is considered. Assuming the existence of a steady solution in a moving system of coordinates, relations are derived between the sliding velocity, the wear, the contact stresses and the displacements for an arbitrary dependence of the wear rate on the contact pressure. Taking into account the presence of a deformation component of the friction force, an equation is written for the balance of the mechanical energy for the punch -elastic base system considered. It is shown that the equality of the work of the external force in displacing the punch to the losses due to friction and the change in the shape of the foundation due to wear is satisfied when the work done by the contact stresses on the increments of the boundary displacements is equal to zero, and the frictional losses must be determined taking into account the non-uniformity of the distributions of the shear contact stresses and the sliding velocity in the contact area. Two special cases of the foundation in the form of a wide and narrow strip are considered, for which the total coefficient of friction is calculated, taking into account the deformation component of the friction force.