The 15 Best White Collar Jobs

Blue-collar, white-collar, grey-collar, and even pink-collar — These are terms you’ll hear when you begin a job search. You might even hear them way before that stage. But what do they mean, and why does it matter?

The color of the collar is not to be taken literally, but the origin of this classification system is literal, which can help you remember them.

The American author Upton Sinclair is credited with coining the phrase “white-collar” to define office workers in the 1930s. The white-collar refers to their white, button-down dress shirts, which makes a lot of sense when you picture how they dress for work. So, what about the rest of them?

15 Best White Collar Jobs

If you think that a white-collar job is for you, then you might want to focus your educational training on one of the following positions. These are some of the top jobs for white-collar workers. They earn a lot, the fields are growing, they’re well-respected, and the future for them is quite bright:

• Accountant
  Average Yearly Salary: $52,000

  Accountants are the money people in an organization. They’re responsible for keeping and interpreting financial records. They may work for a single organization, or they can work for several different companies.

  Accountant and accounting are broad terms and can cover many different types of jobs, but all of them rely heavily on accuracy and ethics.

  Accounting and balancing the books are difficult and detailed jobs and require at least a bachelor’s degree. Accountants often get paid very well in compensation for their skills, expertise, and honesty.

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• Financial Manager
  Average Yearly Salary: $105,000

  A Financial Manager has many of the skills that an accountant has. They understand how to read a financial ledger, and they’re math experts. Where the positions differ is in their approach to money. Accountants keep track of money, whereas financial managers keep track of the long-term financial goals.

  Whether they work for an individual or an organization, they are constantly staying on top of investments and trying to point their client or boss in the best direction for financial growth. Not only is a bachelor’s degree required, but an advanced degree and several years of experience will go a long way in this field.

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• Attorney
  Average Yearly Salary: $108,000

  An attorney or a lawyer has many years of school behind them and several degrees. In most states, they’re also required to pass a bar exam. Becoming an attorney takes dedication and an ability to research and process extremely complex legal issues.

  Attorneys can work in criminal and civil law; they can also be trusted business advisors and specialize in things like contract law or real estate law. Their pay is traditionally quite high, but they have put in the work and hours to earn this salary.

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• Physician and Surgeons
  Average Yearly Salary: $176,000

  Physicians and surgeons can work in a hospital, a clinic, academia, government, or another venue. They are incredibly well-trained people with a demanding educational background. You’re trusting them to help you stay healthy or to put you back on the road to recovery.

  Literally, you trust them with your life. They are paid extremely well and have dedicated their lives to stay on top of health and medical trends, advancements, and treatment protocols.

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• Dentist
  Average Yearly Salary: $134,000

  As you know, a dentist has achieved a doctorate level of education that focuses on oral health. While they are similar to physicians and surgeons in that their work is directly related to servicing other humans, they’re not pink-collar workers.

  Their skill levels and educational requirements are such that they are considered white-collar workers. Their pay is also very high, which tends to push a professional across the pink/white threshold.

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• Health Services Manager
  Average Yearly Salary: $87,000

  Another health care worker is the health services or medical manager. This individual may or may not hold a medical degree, but they do have at minimum a bachelor’s degree and many years of experience.

  They are in charge of the entire health care facility’s operations and activities or a single department. There’s a lot of responsibility with this job, and it requires someone who can see the big picture.

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• Civil Engineer
  Average Yearly Salary: $70,000

  A civil engineer designs, builds, and maintains infrastructures and related projects. They can work on roads, buildings, airports, tunnels, bridges, and even water and sewage facilities. They are highly trained in their chosen specialty, and we rely on their knowledge and skill on a daily basis.

  Whether we just want to drive on safe roads and drink clean water. They have a hand in many aspects of our lives without us even realizing their importance.

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• Software Engineer
  Average Yearly Salary: $86,000

  Another engineering job and this one couldn’t be more different. Software engineers take their knowledge and skills and use them in the computer realm to create programming languages, build software products, develop computer programs, and run network systems.

  What civil engineers do for the world at large, software engineers do for the computer world. Typically, at least a bachelor’s degree is required for this field, but it’s such a burgeoning area with tremendous potential, and it’s so new that you might be able to break in early and advance rapidly.

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• Computer and Information Systems Manager
  Average Yearly Salary: $125,000

  Remember the old Saturday Night Live sketch about the IT guy who would come to fix your office computer and then laugh because you were too stupid to figure out the problem? The computer and information systems manager is the boss of that guy.

  In most larger businesses, this role is filled by someone with a bachelor’s degree and many years of experience in the field. They advise the company on their computer needs, what software upgrades are necessary, keep track of company security, and anything related to technology. They’re vital to the ongoing success and safety of the cyber side of the business.

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• Database Administrator
  Average Yearly Salary: $74,000

  With the growth of big data as a key part of any business, this field is bound to become even more well-known and crucial. Essentially, the database administrator is in charge of data, and they use specialized software to store and organize it.

  This is a field that might break-down into many smaller, more specialized fields in the future as data becomes even more powerful. These are well-paid professionals with an incredible future ahead of them.

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• College Professor
  Average Yearly Salary: $142,000

  Teachers fall into this strange white and pink collar category. They work in an office-type setting and use their experience and education to impart information. They aren’t very hands-on, but they could be. It’s hard to pinpoint this profession now that pink collar has been introduced into the work classification lexicon.

  The current acceptable way to categorize them is to look at what they teach. This puts most college professors firmly in the white-collar arena. They are teaching in a college or university and typically lecturing.

  Grade school, high school, and tech school instructors are more hands-on with their students, giving individual instruction and demonstrations. This makes them a bit more pink-collar.

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• Instructional Coordinator
  Average Yearly Salary: $48,000

  Sitting in the school’s office, overseeing the budget, the curriculum, the policies, and procedures is the Instructional Coordinator’s duty.

  This position often requires a master’s degree and several years of experience in teaching or working in an educational setting. It’s all about making the educational system work, and it can be a very stressful position.

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• Marketing Manager
  Average Yearly Salary: $106,000

  The marketing manager can work for a specific company, planning the strategic marketing around the brand or their products. They can also work for larger marketing agencies and could be tasked with managing a portfolio of clients.

  Sales is their game, and they could fall under a pink-collar category. The only thing that really pushes them white is they’re not usually dealing directly with the public. Marketing managers tell other people how to go about the marketing or sales process.

  Remember that the manager portion of their title is significant here. They’re the big thinkers behind the actual sales.

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• Administrative Services Manager
  Average Yearly Salary: $70,000

  This position can be an exception to a lot of white-collar “rules.” It once was termed an Office Manager and before that, a Secretary. These people may have bachelor’s degrees or even advanced degrees, but that’s not always necessary.

  They are the hub of an organization and have learned so much along the way on-the-job in the company. They’re often more educated and knowledgeable about the company’s ins and outs than some chief executives.

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• Chief Executives
  Average Yearly Salary: $190,000

  Whether you’re a CEO, a CFO, a COO, a CXO, a CIO, a CMO, or any of the other titles that fall under the chief executive umbrella, you’re a white-collar employee. But you’re more than that. You’re not just an employee; you run the company or a division of it.

  You’ve achieved a level of professional success that has you on top of the job pyramid. It requires a lot of education and experience just to climb up that ladder. Once you’re there, you can expect an incredible salary but equally high levels of responsibility. It’s kind of the ultimate in the white-collar world.

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Job Classifications by Collar

On the flip side of the white-collar, the term blue-collar is used to define people who work in the trades or manual labor. It references their blue overalls. You don’t see as many blue overalls today as you once did, but in the past, many of these manual jobs relied on denim or chambray fabrics for durability, and the blue color hid dirt and grease.

Since the origin of white-collar and blue-collar categories, things have blurred a lot, and the distinction isn’t so clear. In the past, you could assume that a white-collar worker had an education and a blue-collar one did not.

That’s not the case now, and so the category grey-collar was created, which is used to describe people who work in a traditionally manual labor field, but their position requires more knowledge, skill, and training.

The next collar to make an appearance was the pink-collar. This categorization is for people who work in a customer-centric profession. Think of pink-collar workers as people who are in entertainment, sales, or service-oriented professions.

White-Collar Professions

While job classifications have shifted and blurred over the years, most white-collar workers can still be found in an office. If they’re not in an actual office, they might be working from home in an office-like setting.

The work from home movement during Covid-19 was typically a fairly easy transition for white-collar jobs as they just had to pick up their computers and learn to telecommute and do virtual meetings.

Think of this group of workers as people who have at least a bachelor’s degree. Many of them even have advanced degrees such as a master’s or a doctorate.

They also tend to be paid on a salary basis, meaning they get a set amount each year, rather than an hourly basis. Also, they often are in higher pay brackets than other workers, or they at least have the potential to earn more throughout their professional lives.

White Collar Jobs FAQ

1. What is the most common white-collar job?

   The most common white-collar job is being an accountant. There are 1.4 million accountants currently working in the United States, which just slightly beats out the 1.3 million American lawyers and the 1.1 million physicians in the country.

   These white-collar jobs typically take place in an office or corporate setting. The term “white-collar” actually comes from the professional businesswear that these occupations usually require on a day-to-day basis. Their attire shows that these professionals don’t have to worry about ruining these white garments at work.

   Alternatively, blue-collar jobs are more manual or trade-related positions, like the foodservice industry and construction.

   The phrase “blue-collar” was used as a blanket term for these types of jobs because, in the 1920s, these types of employees needed to wear tough fabric like denim that was usually blue to camouflage the grease or dirt sustained from a day’s work.

2. Is being a doctor a white-collar job?

   Yes, being a doctor is a white-collar job. While being a physician can often result in some very messy or chaotic situations, the role is still considered white-collar because it requires many years of accredited schooling and isn’t contingent on manual labor. While medical facilities aren’t the typical office space, it’s still an administrative environment.

   You can even tell that being a doctor is a white-collar job by the white coats that they still wear.

3. Is being a teacher a white-collar job?

   Being a teacher falls between a white-collar job and a blue-collar job – a territory that’s often dubbed a grey-collar position. A grey-collar job is a role that doesn’t fit perfectly into either category for one reason or another.

   A teacher’s job is grey-collar because it does demand quite a few years of traditional schooling, and it isn’t a very physical or dirty job, which points to being a white-collar job.

   However, teachers are typically given very low salaries, and they also don’t work in an office setting. In this sense, being a teacher seems more like a blue-collar job.

   Hence, being a teacher is a grey-collar job.

4. Do white-collar jobs always pay more?

   No, white-collar jobs do not always pay more than blue-collar jobs. While there’s a common misconception that white-collar jobs absolutely must pay more than blue-collar ones, this isn’t a hard and fast rule.

   Students who recently graduated with a degree in their field will almost definitely be making way less than a blue-collar professional that already has a decade of experience under their belt.

   That’s a common situation considering that many white-collar employees won’t be eligible to get hired for their first job until their late twenties. By which time, a blue-collar professional has already been working their way up the ladder.

   Besides differences in experience levels, many blue-collar jobs pay a lot of money in general. Oil rig workers and construction managers can easily pull in over six figures a year. Alternatively, common white-collar jobs like tax preparers or computer support technicians typically earn less than $50,000 per year.

   There are opportunities to make a lot in both blue- and white-collar jobs.

Author

Kristin Kizer

Kristin Kizer is an award-winning writer, television and documentary producer, and content specialist who has worked on a wide variety of written, broadcast, and electronic publications. A former writer/producer for The Discovery Channel, she is now a freelance writer and delighted to be sharing her talents and time with the wonderful Zippia audience.