It turns out that there are not only "blue collars", but also "white", "gray", "pink", "blue". This expression is, of course, figurative. This is not literally about this element of clothing, but in general about the dress code of certain categories of workers, depending on their professional duties. Also, the expression "blue (white, blue) collars" is used to indicate the status of a person.
Let's figure out what these "colorful" concepts are.
So blue collar.
This is the name given to workers who are mainly engaged in manual labor, often in large enterprises. The concept came to us from the West (from the UK), where its stable expression sounds like “blue-collar worker”. Traditionally (historically) this is the working class. This expression denotes skilled workers or workers employed in the field of physical labor in factories, workshops, and construction sites. The uniforms of these people are literally most often dark blue or light blue in order to avoid rapid contamination, which was the reason for the name.
As opposed to the concept of "blue collars" there are "white collars". They arerepresent a caste of employees, officials, employees of the administrative apparatus, managers, engineering and technical workers, personnel engaged in mental work. This category of workers prevails in developed countries over the number of production workers.
Sociologists (for example, E. Giddens in the textbook "Sociology"), considering the structure of society, namely class systems, suggests the following division of large-scale groups of people:
- upper class (its representatives are rich people, big businessmen, industrialists);
- middle class (predominantly represented by white-collar workers and specialists);
- working class (includes blue collar workers, manual laborers).
- peasants (people who provide their livelihoods with agricultural production).
Besides these two main gradations, there are also the following:
- “pink collars” are mostly women who work in the office as secretaries, typists, telephone operators, etc;
- "grey collars" - this is how they call workers in the social infrastructure industry, as well as in the service sector;
- "golden collars" – this category is represented by highly qualified scientists and specialists with an entrepreneurial streak, which they successfully use in combination with professional unique knowledge;
- "brown collars" - the so-called service workers.
Similar figurative expressions,denoting the type of professional activity, at the same time determine the class affiliation, since their status depends on the well-being of people and the type of their occupation.
Currently, there is a trend towards a decrease in the size of the working class and an increase in the category of "white collars". This is due to democratization in the developed countries of the world, the availability of higher education, the development of foreign economic relations.
