working class

Term applied to those members of an industrial society who earn their living through manual labour, known in the USA as blue-collar workers. The cultural and political identity of the working class has been eroded since World War II by the introduction of new technology and the break-up of traditional communities through urban redevelopment.

As a Marxist term, working class is more or less synonymous with proletariat and means those workers (manual or nonmanual) whose labour is bought and exploited by the bourgeoisie in exchange for wages.