打工族

dǎ gōng zú
nounIntermediate salaryman
informal

A person who works for wages, typically in an urban setting, often used to describe office workers or those in service jobs.

打工族的生活压力很大,他们常常加班到深夜。

Salarymen face a lot of life pressure and often work late into the night.

许多年轻人成为打工族,为了在城市中生存。

Many young people become salarymen to survive in the city.

💡

The term is often used to describe the urban working class, especially those in white-collar jobs.

Collocations

打工仔salaryman打工妹salarywoman打工生活salaryman life

Related Phrases

上班族phrase
office workers
白领phrase
white-collar workers

💡Pro Tip

Usage Context

The term can be neutral or slightly negative, depending on the speaker's perspective on wage labor.

Gold Rule

Avoid Misuse

Do not use this term to describe self-employed individuals or entrepreneurs, as it specifically refers to wage-earning employees.

📖Word Origin

The term combines '打工' (dǎ gōng, meaning 'to work for wages') and '族' (zú, meaning 'group' or 'tribe'), referring to the collective of wage-earning workers.

📝Usage Notes

This term is commonly used in Mainland China and Taiwan to describe the urban working class, often with a neutral or slightly derogatory connotation, depending on context.

Word Breakdown

打工
to work for wages
root
+
group or tribe
suffix
汉英词典