White-collar workers perform tasks which are less "laborious" yet often more highly paid than blue-collar workers, who do manual work. They are salaried professionals (such as some doctors or lawyers), as well as employees in administrative or clerical positions. In some studies managers are considered as part of the white-collar worker grouping, in others they are not. The name derives from the traditional white, button down shirts worn by workers of such professions.

Formerly a minority in the agrarian and early industrial societies, they have become a majority in industrialized countries. The recent technological revolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/pac/Revolution#Technological_revolutions) has created disproportionately more desk jobs, and lessened the number of employees doing manual work in factories. Generally, the pay rate is higher among white-collar workers, although many of the "white-collar" workers are not necessarily upper class as the term once implied.

As salaried employees, white-collar workers are sometimes members of white-collar labor unions and they can resort to strike action to settle grievances with their employers, when collective bargaining fails.