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Does someone have a citation for the clergy origin of the term? It seems much more likely that the term white-collar originates much the same as blue-collar did -- that is that white-collar workers typically hold positions that require a dress shirt (usually white) and tie, if not a suit. Granted, I don't have a reference for that origin either, but it is the origin that most people are familiar with, and it certainly makes a lot more sense than the clergy one. -- Sm5574 ( talk) 20:22, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
"However, the European clerical collar of a priest's clothing was white, and pre-medieval priests in Europe were the main social group with literacy. Prior to the rise of separate professional and mercantile classes, priests not only performed ecclesiastical duties, but also served as physicians, lawyers, scribes, and accountants: often, they were the only literate members of a society in which others could not read or write."
I agree that this needs to be sourced. Sounds like original synthesis to imply any link from 19th century clergy to this term. So moved it here pending a citation. Yobmod ( talk) 10:17, 18 August 2008 (UTC)
The proportion of white collar workers in the United States steadily increased from 17% of employees in 1900 to 59.4% (Bureau of the Census, 1990, p380) of employees having white-collar jobs in 1998.
Pardon my saying so, but exactly can a 1990 book give figures on employment in 1998? Presumably this needs rewording, as I'm guessing that the book is correct, but is only relevant for the 1900 figure? Falastur2 Talk 22:11, 3 September 2008 (UTC)
Also, an increasing number of companies do not have any blue-collar workers because they do not physically manufacture anything within their home country, but instead have an entire hierarchy of white-collar desk workers who mostly dress the same.[citation needed]
I'm not sure this comment is appropriate for an encyclopedia as it seems to be completely arbitrary and demonstrating significant bias on the part of the author - in particular the "who mostly dress the same." comment which is patently ridiculous and bespeaks of a lack of experience with a variety of corporate environments. As is quite correctly mentioned later in the page, corporate businesses now run the gamut of completely casual to traditional formal, and even in the strictly formal environments there are significant. Personally, I work in an office where a large proportion of the employees wear business suits, and there is a great deal of variety in the cuts, patterns, colours and styles of suits warn. There can be more variety in a formal environment than in non-white-collar jobs, where uniforms and safety clothing are more commonly required. FraterNLST ( talk) 22:27, 26 October 2008 (UTC)
- Second FraterNLST. In terms of major analytical trends for class or occupational catagory, the fact that a firm is international or transnational doesn't make any difference in terms of its balance in the imperialist / managing country. Secondly, occupational dress in white collar fields is industry and sectorally dependent, and varies between national, ethnic, and other cultural norms. Fifelfoo ( talk) 01:28, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
- The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
yup. unless you consider exploiting the lower classes hard work. 199.117.69.60 ( talk) 20:19, 1 May 2009 (UTC)
- So every person branded as "white collar" is a slacker? -- T.M.M. Dowd ( talk) 17:58, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
- Are we allowed to delete these unproductive, ignorant comments from discussion? Also, I do need to throw my 2 cents in, where would most blue collared "workers" be without white collared workers exploiting (a.k.a. implementing) blue collars' skills or labor to create jobs. Wrightek ( talk) 15:38, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
- Check out the picture of "office work" in the article, though: nobody in the picture is actually doing any work. One woman is texting on her cell phone. Someone else is wearing the Face of Analytical Minesweeper Problem Solving. Most seem to be gawking vacantly at colorful glowing panels. Model of modern efficiency. -- John Moser ( talk) 18:56, 7 August 2012 (UTC)
White collar should clearly refer to priests, etc., who actually wear white collars. -- T.M.M. Dowd ( talk) 17:58, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
- As already stated, when the term was originated most white collar workers actually wore white collared dress shirts. Wrightek ( talk) 15:19, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
Why is Mad Men, Dilbert, Office Space and the Office at the TOP of the section? Sure they depict white collar workers and it might be an idea to list one or two of them lower in the section but surely they are not relevant enough to the topic to warrant their current position? Also, if they are to be mentioned it might be better to write a 'pop culture' kind of section first? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.149.216.11 ( talk) 12:55, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
- The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.
The result of the move request was: article not moved Armbrust The Homunculus 15:36, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
White-collar worker → Office worker – "White-collar worker" is a US-centric idiomatic term for describing an office worker. I also feel that Blue-collar worker should be renamed to "manual laborer". I am aware there there are decades of precedent for using these other terms, but they are not precise and not preferable for an international reference work like Wikipedia. I could be wrong about this - I feel uncertain. Blue Rasberry (talk) 16:02, 10 January 2014 (UTC)
- See also the spectrum of colors at the top of this template. I feel that these are much less established than white and blue. I think they should all be renamed, but probably they are not worth considering unless there is agreement to change blue and white.
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Blue Rasberry (talk) 16:04, 10 January 2014 (UTC)
- Oppose. While office workers do exis elsewhere, the concept of white and blue collar workers is an American one. It's okay to use the American term for an American concept. Hot Stop 17:19, 10 January 2014 (UTC)
- Weak oppose. No serious lit review was presented to convince me that a stated naming bias exits, or that this is not a simple move from US-bias to British bias. If this is changed, please echo me. -- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 15:56, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
- Oppose. While most white-collar workers may be office workers; not all office workers are white-collar workers -- the great majority of office workers arguably are pink-collar workers. Perhaps a closer equivalent would be professional workers, but white-collar also includes managerial workers. Kind regards, DA Sonnenfeld ( talk) 17:38, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
- Oppose The UK uses these terms also; I haven't previously thought of them as US-specific and googling for more information mostly just leads to people referencing this article. It's difficult to have a precise article name for a somewhat fuzzy classification system but the current article title seems more appropriate than that suggested. ben moore 00:15, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
- Oppose. Yes, widely used in the UK too, and probably also other English-speaking countries. And as User:DASonnenfeld says, not all white-collar workers are office workers. The term includes managers, professionals, para-professionals and others, many of whom do not strictly work in offices (or not all the time, at least). -- Necrothesp ( talk) 14:54, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
- The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.
Iwkrager how is that correct? Socialistguy ( talk) 08:35, 18 June 2015 (UTC)
This should be merged with businessperson. -- GoldCoastPrior ( talk) 21:12, 18 September 2015 (UTC)
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