The term white-collar worker refers to a salaried professional or an educated worker who performs semi-professional office, administrative, and sales coordination tasks, as opposed to a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor. "White-collar work"'s an informal term, defined in contrast to "blue-collar work". History Origin of the term The term 'white collar' was first used by Upton Sinclair in relation to modern clerical, administrative and management workers during the 1930s. Sincl… (More on White-collar)