Blue Collar Vs White Collar Jobs: The Difference

By Author: Amit Singh
Total Articles: 25
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There is a world of difference in understanding between skilled and unskilled workers. While earlier the workers were identified with the color of dress worn by them which defined the work that they would perform.

Generally, the unskilled labor was categorized under “blue collar’ and the skilled labor under “white collar. With the changing scenario, unemployment escalated, though the color of the uniform disappeared, the categories were still there. The connotation of both the sectors expanded, with even skilled labor workers now was categorized under the unemployed or underemployed bracket.

‘Blue collar’ and the ‘white collar’ are two terms that depict two very different scenarios of Indian Informal Economy. The term “white collar” is credited to Upton Sinclair, who defined the work in this category with administrative work performed by employees. Whereas, “blue-collar” delineate the working class who performs manual labor.

In India, 75% of workforce falls under this category. The spectrum ranges from upper to lower-tier informal activities, such as cab drivers, ...
... construction workers, security guards, street vendors, household helpers, junk collectors, small-scale manufacturing business or people engaged in agricultural work.

The distinguishing characteristics between the two types of employees go on, and yet there is no dictionary definition that can offer more succinct language as to what the phrases signify other than to suggest, in imprecise terms, the differences in class.

What do they do?

The highly skilled worker might work behind a desk in the tertiary sector, the entry-level worker gets his hands dirty doing manual labor or working in a division of manufacturing. Thus, latter demands more physical exhaustibility rather than mental attention. If the reference to a grey economy job does not point to agricultural work, it might imply another physically exhausting task such as construction or manufacturing.

What do they get?

The difference in the connotation between the two economies is not that huge as both relates to jobs or workers. But formal sector worker not only makes more money than the informal sector worker but also fills a different class. Whereas a construction or agricultural worker may get paid wages depending on his working hours, an employee doing basic administrative work behind the desk gets a fixed salary along with perks.

How much do they sweat?

Since the temporary jobs are based on hourly wages, they do not have permanent working hours like full-time job workers do. Recently, many countries like Sweden opted for 6 hours of working in a day to ensure that people enjoy their personal lives too. Though this privilege applies to employees working under the registered sector but the parallel economy still needs to be organized.

Security OR Insecurity?

In India, it is widely believed that employment in tertiary sector is secured. It is a myth! Though a part-time worker roams in search of work every day, a full-time worker can be anytime given out a monthly notice to wind up the work. Security or no security, salary still draws more people to a job in India. They want job security too but that is least when taken in terms of retention.

Significance of Education in both sectors

Perhaps the white collar worker has received more education than the blue collar worker but due to lack of job opportunities, most of the intelligent and skilled people are working in the informal sector. While an employee has to go through a stringent recruitment process, a worker must only possess a skill or two to enter jobs at the bottom of the pyramid.

From the above points, we can finally conclude that though blue collar workers perform more physically exhaustible work, recognition and the pay they get in comparison to white collar workers is way less.