White Collar Workers
– Coined in the 1930s by Upton Sinclair
– Referenced clerical, administrative, and managerial functions
– Salaried professionals
– General office workers
– Management positions
Blue Collar Workers
– Perform manual labor
– Earn hourly wage or piece rate
– Coined in 1924
– Working class members
– Various industries such as construction and manufacturing
Pink Collar Workers
– Perform in the service industry
– Jobs typically held by women
– Waiters, retail clerks, salespersons, etc.
– Coined in the late 1970s
– Encompasses all service jobs now
Other Classifications
– Red Collar: Government workers, Communist Party officials in private companies (China)
– New Collar: Develops technical and soft skills through nontraditional education paths
– No Collar: Artists, free spirits, and people who work without payment
– Orange Collar: Prison laborers
– Green Collar: Military personnel and workers in professions related to the environment and renewable energy
Miscellaneous Classifications
– Brown Collar: Military personnel
– Scarlet Collar: Workers in the sex industry
– Black Collar: Manual laborers in dirty industries or illegal professions
– Open Collar: Workers who work from home, likely freelancers
– Grey Collar: Workforce not classified as blue or white collar, including elderly individuals and occupations combining blue and white collar elements Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designation_of_workers_by_collar_color
Collar color is a set of terms denoting groups of working individuals based on the colors of their collars worn at work. These can commonly reflect one's occupation within a broad class, or sometimes gender; at least in the late 20th and 21st century, these are generally metaphorical and not a description of typical present apparel. For the two terms of longest use, white-collar workers are named for the white-collared shirts that were fashionable among office workers in the early and mid-20th century. Blue-collar workers are referred to as such because in the early 20th century, they usually wore sturdy, inexpensive clothing that did not show dirt easily, such as blue denim or cambric shirts.
Various other "collar" descriptions exist as well, although none have received the kind of broad use in American English as the traditional white-collar/blue-collar distinction.