What color is your collar at work? [Column] (2024)

It may be very clear where an employee is positioned in the structural organization of their employer, but what about the color of their collar? Wikipedia states that collar color is a set of terms that identify groups of working individuals based on the color of their collars worn at work.

Collar colors

White-collar and blue-collar terms have the longest history of use.

White-collar referred to the white-collared shirts that were fashionable among office workers in the early and mid-20th century. The term white-collar worker was coined in the 1930s by Upton Sinclair, an American writer who referenced the word in connection to clerical, administrative and managerial functions during the 1930s.

Blue-collar workers were named because they usually wore sturdy, inexpensive clothing that did not show dirt easily, such as blue denim or chambray shirts in the 20th century. The tern blue-collar worker was first used in 1924 and represents a member of the working class who performs manual labor for an hourly wage.

Pink-collar jobs in the past have been jobs that cater towards women and generally are related to customer interaction, entertainment, sales, or other service-oriented types of work.

Grey-collar refers to people not classified as white or blue. They often are people who work beyond retirement, principally white-collar workers, and are working part-time or are under employed. Under employed means the person may be qualified with a specific degree but may be holding a job that does not require such high qualification.

Gold-collar jobs are highly skilled individuals who are valued for their problem-solving skills, creativity and intelligence whose job involves non-repetitive and complex tasks.

Green-collar jobs primarily are the environmental sector jobs in renewable energy, nature conservation, sustainability efforts, organic farming, eco-friendly vehicle manufacturing and green lobbying.

Black-collar jobs previously were jobs in the mining and oil industries and doing physical jobs conducted in a dirty environment. Today black-collar (unofficial uniforms may be black attire) workers are creative professionals like artists, graphic designers and video producers.

Purple-collar jobs are skilled workers and typically someone who is both white and blue-collar.

They are principally white-collar, but perform blue-collar tasks with some regularity, such as engineers and technicians.

Chrome-collar jobs are a new term for an advanced technological job that are automated and done by robots, particularly in manufacturing that typically replace blue- collar jobs.

Red-collar jobs refer to government workers of all types. The term originates from compensation received from red ink budgets.

Orange-collar jobs refer to prison laborers, named for the very bright orange jumpsuits worn by inmates.

Brown-collar jobs are military jobs.

Collars without colors

Popped-collar jobs are employees from rich families that take 9-to-5 jobs to build character or young people who usually work at prestigious golf clubs or in jobs related to the stock market.

No-collar jobs are artists and free spirits who choose passion and growth over financial gains, who do not get paid but work as volunteers.

New-collar jobs are a non-color and are one of the most important to the economy. They develop the technical and soft skills needed to work in technology jobs through non-traditional education paths, including training through community colleges, vocational schools, software boot camps, technical certification programs, high school technical education and on-the job apprentices and internships.

So many colors and so many collars at work. Always remember to respect and value every single worker no matter what the color of their collar!