However, the term has now gradually been expanded to include anyone in an office environment whose job requires clerical, administrative, or managerial duties. Stereotypically, a white-collar worker’s job description would not include physical labor. Because white-collar jobs have a higher barrier to entry, in terms of education, and earn an annual salary rather than an hourly wage, these roles are often perceived as more prestigious and desirable. However, both categories of workers are integral to the functioning of society and prop up the nation’s economy.

• When it comes to education, white-collar positions typically require some form of higher education.
• Below is a summary table of the differences between blue-collar and white-collar careers.
• Recruiters face this challenge when they have candidates who may have talents, but they don’t quite fit the specific needs of the job.
• There were some women who chose to have careers as doctors and lawyers, but they were part of an extremely small population and they were looked down on as people who strayed from traditional roles.

To them, the white collar was a vital symbol of their middle-class respectability. OneDegree Careers is a platform created to help career seekers explore and choose a high-paying skilled career that doesn’t require college debt. Electricians are professionals who install, maintain, and repair electrical systems in buildings, machinery, and equipment. They work in various settings, including construction sites, residential properties, and industrial facilities. Electricians need to complete an apprenticeship program and obtain a license to perform electrical work. Accountants are professionals who are responsible for managing financial records, preparing financial statements, and providing financial advice to individuals and organizations.

Why Do We Say White Collar and Blue Collar?

Mid-range blue-collar pay can be anywhere from $35,000 to more than $55,000, and sometimes into the six digits. These roles include truck drivers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, https://personal-accounting.org/blue-collar-vs-white-collar-what-s-the-difference/ HVAC technicians, automotive repair persons, welders, machinists and bus drivers. Two experts debate the changing wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers.

With the advancement in technology, remote work from home or another location has also become very common for many white-collar workers. White collar is the most common term that is contrasted with blue collar, especially when it comes to employment. Some of the main differences between blue collar and white collar include where each works, their educational background and skills, as well as their roles and how they’re paid. The highest-paying blue-collar jobs require workers to be skilled and often certified worker. An elevator technician, for example, earns $87,518 a year or an hourly wage of around $42.

Following this would be an electronics repairer ($32.75), a power plant operator ($31.50), a gas plant operator ($30.70), and a train engineer ($28.30). Another way to define these two phrases is the perception that white-collar workers not only make more money than blue-collar workers but that they also belong to different social classes. The perception is that white-collar workers have a higher status because they may earn more and may be more educated. Blue-collar workers, on the other hand, are believed to fall lower on the social ladder because they do manual labor and may not be as educated.

Education level

White collar jobs usually follow regular office hours, typically Monday to Friday, with some flexibility. Blue collar jobs can have varying schedules, including shift work, weekends, and overtime depending on industry demands. On the other hand, blue-collar jobs are often wage-based, meaning that the workers are compensated based on the work done in a certain number of hours or shifts per week. A blue-collar job refers to some sort of manual or trade-related labor that requires physical exertion, rather than mental attention.

Pros and cons of both types of jobs

Compared to the traditional white dress shirts used by men working in office settings, the blue and white have since created a clash of socio-economic classes. The difference between blue collar and white collar jobs is fading away with the passage of time due to the low pay scale of the white collar jobs and high demand of skilled labors. Here, in this article, the concept of the two types of jobs has been discussed, so take a read. Their roles focus more on intellectual and decision-making tasks rather than manual labor.

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Its cast also notably features «Saved by the Bell» actor Tiffani Thiessen as Peter’s wife, Elizabeth Burke. American writer Upton Sinclair is partially responsible for the modern understanding of the term white-collar, having used the phrase in conjunction with administrative work. Involve more routine and standardized tasks that follow specific procedures and instructions. Lucas Harper is a knowledgeable author with expertise in the fields of law, international relations, and politics.

What’s The Difference Between Blue Collar vs White Collar

“Blue-collar” and “white-collar” jobs are two distinct classifications of employment that differ in terms of the type of labor involved, the work setting and the level of education required. Under US Law, a pink-collar worker has a position that is traditionally filled by a woman. Meaning, to truly understand what a pink-collar job is and how it is separated from blue-collared jobs, we have to go back to a time when women in the workforce were rare and often frowned upon. In the 1960s and 1970s, blue-collar workers and their families became nearly as popular subjects for social scientists as white-collar workers were in the 1950s. In the 19th century, working-class men often owned very few shirts that had no collars on them. It appeared in the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 1946 and in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1950, attributed to American origins.

BPO stands for business process outsourcing, which is a practice of contracting out certain business functions or operations to a third-party service provider. The terms blue-collar and white-collar are often used to describe different types of jobs and workers in the labor market. In this blog, we will explore the origin, meaning, and characteristics of these two categories of jobs, as well as some of the challenges recruiters face while hiring for the respective job roles.