Where did the term blue-collar worker come from? Answers

Candace Osmond studied Advanced Writing & Editing Essentials at MHC. She’s been an International and USA TODAY Bestselling Author for over a decade. Candace has a keen eye for content editing and a high degree of expertise in Fiction. To keep pace with the changing nature of work today, ADP designs global payroll solutions that simplify, localise and unify your payroll needs. While many misconceptions that surround blue-collar work were based partially in truth many years ago, the story today is quite different.

The origins of white collar vs. blue collar

There are a wide range of payscales for such work depending upon field of specialty and experience. Their jobs generally require a college degree, specialized skills, and software skills. Over time, the term “blue collar” has evolved to include a wider range of occupations beyond traditional manual labor. It now encompasses workers in the construction, manufacturing, transportation, and other industries that require physical exertion and technical skills. By the 1940s, it was common for Americans to juxtapose blue-collar and white-collar jobs. In 1945, when the United States was still at war with Japan, Rear Admiral F. G. Crisp testified before Congress about the U.S.

Blue collar is one of a number of job types that are now classified based on the color of clothing they typically wear. Others include white collar, gold collar, pink collar, red collar, and green collar. Typical blue-collar professions include welding, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, maintenance, trucking, warehousing, and much more. Often blue-collar workers are deskless workers, meaning they spend the majority of their work hours outside of an office and not working from a computer on a desk.

For example, Henry Clay Southworth, a clerk in New York City in the 1850s, noted in his diary that he returned home late to get a fresh collar, having spent a hot June morning sweating through his first collar. That afternoon, if given the opportunity, Southworth could have blended in with the city’s wealthy businessmen. Historian Brian Luskey notes the tension that such clerks experienced. To them, the white collar was a vital symbol of their middle-class respectability. “Blue collar” is one, ‘professiona’l or ‘trades worker’ are acouple of others. White-collar was actually coined in the 1920s when Upton Sinclair, a writer, used it to denote people who worked in stuffy office spaces and performed clerical work.

For example, in 2018, construction laborers numbered around 1,405,000 while workers in maintenance and repair totalled 1,488,000. The term blue-collar gets its roots from the special clothing worn by manual laborers, like blue cotton or denim. In the early 20th century, these workers often wore durable, blue-colored shirts as part of their uniforms as police officers or factory workers. Many of those in blue-collar or skilled trade occupations perform physical labor.

What’s The Origin Of The Term ‘Blue Collar Worker’?

This categorization system was based on the color or type of clothing people wore in their jobs. We’re far past “Mad Men”-style suits and into a “The Social Network” phase of workplace attire. Jobs that used to be considered blue collar, like factory work, are cleaner and more technical than they used to be.

The more elaborate the attire, the more apparent that they performed no manual labor. However, the rise of a new middle class of merchants, factory owners, and professionals changed notions of work, and social climbers who had to work for a living still strived to appear refined and wealthy. Some blue-collar jobs include factory work, mining, construction work, welding, and electrical work. Some require a high skill set, including nuclear power plant operators, elevator installers, criminal investigators, and dispatchers. Blue-collar is a term that describes a worker “whose duties call for the wearing of work clothes or protective clothing” due to the manual and physically-demanding nature of their work.

• Over time, the term was condensed to “longshoreman” to describe individuals who work on the docks handling cargo.
• Power plant operators, power distributors, and nuclear power plant operators all require extensive training.
• Their jobs are normally situated in offices, where they sit at desks and use computers.
• However, it’s essential to note that both blue collar and white collar roles are crucial for the functioning of the economy and society1.

What Do White Collar and Blue Collar Mean?

In December 1963, Cheri Register came home to Minnesota from the University of Chicago for her first winter break. She felt the need to reinvent her look with a blue work shirt from Montgomery Ward to fit in with campus radicals and express her solidarity with the workers of the world. When she told her father, who worked at a meatpacking plant, about her plan, he said that he could just bring her one from work. If you’re reading this, you’ve already taken the first step to improving your blue-collar workforce’s job satisfaction. Take the next where did the term blue collar come from steps to connect more deeply with your teams through personalized communication, recognition for work well done, and timely feedback.

By the mid-1920s, collared work shirts were being mass produced cheaply enough to include pockets, collars, and cuffs, and industrial workers by that time could often afford to buy more than one. The 1926 Montgomery Ward mail-order catalog featured the “Guaranteed Work Shirt,” described as a “big tough shirt of firm heavy chambray.” It came in two colors. Blue-collar workers were perceived as being “lower class” than white-collar workers. This is despite the fact that many of these jobs, whether they were in management or trades, paid similar wages. Not all blue-collar occupations pay less than white-collar jobs, either.

Many strivers attempted to make a similar transformation on their own, and proper attire was important. The detachable white collar first became widely available in the 1830s, allowing clerks and shopkeepers — who still had to do manual work from time to time — the ability to have a clean, freshly starched collar at all times. This collared divide of occupations was quite recent, emerging in the 1930s. This linguistic development followed on the heels of more than a century of changes in the nature of work and clothing. The collared divide of occupations emerged in the 1930s, following more than a century of changes in the nature of work and clothing.

Navy’s need for more civilian workers to fill a variety of positions. “The Navy’s civilian employees fall into two broad groups, blue-collar workers and white-collar workers,” Crisp said. “Blue-collar workers, in general, are those who produce with their hands.” He listed mechanics, welders, electricians and laborers among them. White-collar workers, Crisp said, included “not only typists, stenographers, and file clerks” but also executives, engineers, and scientists. As the 20th century progressed, the terms became shorthand for different types of jobs.

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Workers in some trade fields can earn more than their salaried counterparts. Nuclear technicians, elevator installers, and subway operators earn more than $70,000 per year, which is higher than the average college graduate earns after graduation. White-collar workers were classified as such because of the white shirts they wore to work, typically with a suit and tie. Their jobs are normally situated in offices, where they sit at desks and use computers.

What is the term associated with a skilled worker?

These jobs often required vocational training or an apprenticeship, or they may have had on-the-job training. The terms “white-collar jobs” and “blue-collar jobs” pop up in discussions about work, the economy, education and class. But why are jobs sorted like loads of laundry by collar colors, especially in a world where a lot of people where t-shirts and hoodies to work, no matter what they do? Since most blue-collar jobs pay by the hour, working overtime could mean that a blue-collar worker can earn six figures in a year.