Gold-collar worker
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Gold-collar worker (GCW) is not used as often as its blue-collar and white-collar counterparts. It describes a person who has attended vocational school, community college or other post-high school education, but didn't graduate or has a high school diploma or less, 18 to 25 years old and is employed either full time or part time. They may have odd jobs such as a waiter or waitress at a restaurant or a bar, a sales clerk at a department store or a specialized apparel store at a shopping mall, cleaning houses or hotel rooms, a barista at a coffeehouse chain like Starbucks or Seattle's Best Coffee, or as a worker (or even a supervisor) at a fast food restaurant like Hungry Jacks, Burger King, or Taco Bell. (These are jobs that college students might take in order to pay for tuition, apartment rent, or just simply for spending money while they attend college, vocational school, beauty school, or graduate school.) This group tends to have more disposable income than college students, who pay high tuitions and manage student loans and other debt. As a result a gold collar worker may have more money to spend on luxuries such as iPods, designer clothes, expensive cocktails at bars/night clubs, game systems and customized cars than a college student of around the same age as them might not be able to afford. The big drawback is however that in the long run the income of college graduates often exceeds that of these typical "gold collar" workers.
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These people are going to be cash-rich 19-year-olds and cash-poor 30-year-olds... If you're making 22 grand a year and not paying for college, you can earn enough disposable income to have an apartment and a car. But it tops out there. Job security is not good, and you end up in the lower middle class and working poor. | ” |
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[edit] Origin of the term
It has been reported that the term 'Gold-Collar worker' was first used by Robert E Kelley in his 1985 book The Gold-Collar Worker: Harnessing the Brainpower of the New Work Force. Here he discussed a new generation of workers who use American business' most important resource, brainpower. A quote from the book summary states, "They are a new breed of workers, and they demand a new kind of management. Intelligent, independent, and innovative, these employees are incredibly valuable. They are lawyers and computer programmers, stock analysts and community planners, editors and engineers. They are as distinct from their less skilled white-collar counterparts - - bank tellers, bookkeepers, clerks, and other business functionaries - - as they are from blue-collar laborers. And they account for over 40 percent of America's workforce."[1]
The color gold correlates to these workers because they are highly skilled in several areas in a company.[2] When Kelley's book was published in 1985 typically these workers are young-college educated workers who specialize in specific fields. Examples of these fields are lawyers and computer programmers, stock analysts and community planners, editors and engineers.[3] Recently, typical Gold-collar workers are usually Black or Hispanic who have some type of post-high school education (university, community college, vocational school, etc.), but did not graduate. While they save money for future plans they work jobs like fast-food and retail, security, office workers, or hairdressing while still attending school. [4]
[edit] Influence in the Media
Several movies and T.V. shows have displayed examples of Gold-Collar lifestyles. The 1987 movie Can't Buy Me Love has a young teen who works and attends school at the same time, allowing him to spend his money freely. In Failure to Launch an adult still lives with his parents while having a boat business. In Stomp the Yard the main character maintains a job while still going to school. In The Pursuit of Happyness Chris Gardner went from salesmen to stockbroker.
These are a few example of the influence Gold-Collar workers has had on the media. The story of climbing your way to the top is a popular tale in Hollywood which is why these workers are represented many times.
[edit] See also
- http://www.census.gov Employment data.
- white-collar worker
- blue-collar worker
- pink-collar worker
- McJob
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.kelleyideas.com/pages/thegoldcollarworker.html
- ^ http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-gol1.htm
- ^ http://www.kelleyideas.com/pages/thegoldcollarworker.html
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2005-02-28-young-usat_x.htm
- Book Summary of Gold-Collar Worker
- World Wide Words with the definition of Gold collar worker
- USA Today on the young working class
- Article by Contact Professional Magazine on Gold-Collar Workers
- Robert E. Kelley. 1985. The Gold-Collar Worker: Harnessing the Brainpower of the New Work Force. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-11739-8
