Etymology

pink-collar

pink-col·lar

Today it means: Of or pertaining to employees in predominantly female service industries. Full definition →

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The story

From pink + collar. By analogy with various constructions ending in the word collar, especially blue-collar, and from the traditional conception of pink as a feminine color (with blue its masculine counterpart), a conception perhaps magnified in this case by the sometime popularity of pink blouses among women in the service industry.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.