- Collar workers
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Groups of workers are sometimes referred to be the characteristics of their uniforms or clothing. Blue-collar workers are so named because they tended to wear sturdy, inexpensive clothing that didn't show dirt easily, such as blue denim or chambray shirts. White-collar workers are named for the white collars fashionable among office workers in the early and middle parts of the 20th century.
Contents
Blue-collar
A "Blue-collar worker" is a member of the working class, who performs manual labor and earns an hourly wage.
Subcategories
- Scarlet Collar (2000) - Female shop workers.
- Black Collar (1998) - Miners (especially coal miners) and oil workers.
White-collar
The term "white-collar worker" was coined in the 1930s by Upton Sinclair[citation needed]. It means a salaried professional, typically referring to general office workers and management.
Subcategories
- Pink-collar worker (1975) - Secretarial, administrative, or other clerical workers.
- Grey-collar (1981) - A skilled Technician, typically someone who is both white and blue collar, i.e., Information Technology workers. They are principally white collar, but perform blue collar tasks with some regularity.
- Gold-collar worker (1985) - Highly skilled professionals who may be in high demand, such as doctors and lawyers.
Specialty classifications
These classifications may fall under more than one of the categories or subcategories above.
- Green-collar worker (1984) - Environmentally friendly jobs.
- Yellow Collar - People in the creative field—photographers, filmmakers, etc. They may spend time doing both white and blue collar tasks as well as tasks outside either category.
- Light Blue Collar - Temp workers, whether or not they're working a blue or white collar task. Light Blue is a combination of white and blue.
- Fuel Collar - Those either in the travel industry or who very regularly travel as a part of their job, i.e. door to door salesmen, field salesmen, airline pilots, etc. They spend the bulk of their time traveling.
- Frayed Collar (1995) - Employees having trouble making ends meet, the working poor.
- No Collar (2008) - Unemployed
- Open Collar- Those who work from home
Categories:- Social classes
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