Indirect worker

A worker who does not actually make or sell goods, but performs administrative tasks or other functions that are indirectly related to the production of such goods.

"Since the early 1970s, demand for non-production workers (mainly white-collar) has been increasing relative to demand for production workers (mainly blue-collar). Non-production workers have traditionally earned a higher income than production workers. However, the gap in wages and salaries between the two increased during the 1980s and early 1990s."
(Statistics Canada, Impact of Technology and Trade on the Wage Gap Between White-Collar and Blue-Collar Workers in Manufacturing, 1998, visited 2011-07-28)