ABSTRACT
White-collar workers initially enjoyed social and political as well as economic advantages vis-à-vis blue-collar industrial laborers, such as less stringent timekeeping rules, a better work environment, longer holidays, shorter workdays, and improved pension benefits (Jenkins and Sherman 1979). However, rapid advances in office automation, especially afterWorldWar II, and an oversupply of white-collar labor due to expanded educational opportunities and a huge influx of female workers into a labor market, depressed those relative privileges, fostering white-collar proletarianization (Crompton and Jones 1984). This phenomenon began earlier and was more remarkable in the West than elsewhere (Kocka 1980; Lockwood 1989; Speier 1986), but was conspicuous inKorea aswell. For instance, clerical workers in Korea earned 60% more than production workers in 1985 but less than 30%more in 1992, while salesworkers slipped below productionworkers after 1989 (Suh 1998). As their ranks swelled but socioeconomic status declined and positions were de-skilled, white-collar workers organized to become a potent political force.
