Most Americans today are white collar salaried employees who work in varied environments, including offices, retail outlets, and hospitals. Roughly one quarter (23.4%) of Americans were employed in the traditional blue collar fields that require hard physical labor with another 14% employed in the service industry. Office administrators or more colloquial, secretaries, were the largest single occupation in the United States. In 2004 there were 4.1 million secretaries with a median income of $34,970, near the national median of $32,000.
