black-collar

Adjective

black-collar (not comparable)

1. (rare) Of or pertaining to employment in the black market; that is, to engagement in illicit trade or distribution of untaxed goods and services.
   • Rewards necessarily drop for the former — not only because their numbers increase relatively but also because their output per man-hour does not rise as rapidly as that of the black-collar worker.1946, The Ethical Outlook, page 270
   • What attitudes, types of ideas and particular experiences would lead a "blue collar worker" to perceive the evidence of the defendant's guilt differently than a white, pink or black collar worker?1979, Reports of Cases Determined in the Courts of Appeal of the State of California
2. (slang) Relating to creative work.
   • black-collar worker
   • In Helsinki, the inner-city workers' housing which was once uniformly red, now occupied by ‘black-collar’ workers—creative industry types who wear a T-shirt to work—votes solidly green.2012, Olaf Cramme, Patrick Diamond, editors, After the Third Way: The Future of Social Democracy in Europe, I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 176
3. Relating to coalminers and oil workers.
   • Even if you add to this the 4200 jobs created each year by the energy-efficiency measures for which the Rudd government claims credit, it is completely negated by the ‘black-collar’ jobs being added as Queensland and New South Wales expand coal exports.2010, Robert Manne, David McKnight, editors, Goodbye to All That? […] , Black Inc., →ISBN, page 257
4. (rare) Relating to the clergy.
   • This is scarcely the first crisis involving what an Australian victims' group, Broken Rites, has termed black-collar crime. But never before has a scandal cast doubts on the judgment and authority of a pope.2010 March 19, Riazat Butt, John Hooper, “Calamity for pope as the past – and case of Peter Hullermann – returns to haunt him”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms:

   cleric, clerical, pastoral