What is a female worker who receives a salary called?


I have seen the term サラリーマン for men. What is a female who works for a salary,
regardless of occupation, called? Is サラリーウーマン appropriate?




We don't use サラリーウーマン. **OL (pronounced オーエル)** is a catch-all, wasei-eigo
term for female office workers. Don't try to "spell it out" as オフィスレディー, which
is usually **not** understood.

However, some people believe it mainly refers to low-ranking workers who does
clerical work, and even [English Wikipedia article for
this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_lady) is written with such a
prejudiced view:

> OL is a female office worker in Japan who performs generally pink collar
> tasks such as serving tea and secretarial or clerical work.

The [Japanese version](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/OL) says it's essentially
a neutral term. If you want to avoid misunderstanding, it's safest to just use
**会社員** regardless of sex. サラリーマン is becoming a dated word, anyway.

**EDIT** : Note that both サラリーマン and OL mainly refer to **office** workers.
Blue-collar workers are usually not called サラリーマン even if their income is
salary-based.

Related

  * [What is the difference between キャリアウーマン, OL, and ビジネスウーマン?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/6137/5010)




We don't use サラリーウーマン. **OL (pronounced オーエル)** is a catch-all, wasei-eigo
term for female office workers. Don't try to "spell it out" as オフィスレディー, which
is usually **not** understood.

However, some people believe it mainly refers to low-ranking workers who does
clerical work, and even [English Wikipedia article for
this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_lady) is written with such a
prejudiced view:

> OL is a female office worker in Japan who performs generally pink collar
> tasks such as serving tea and secretarial or clerical work.

The [Japanese version](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/OL) says it's essentially
a neutral term. If you want to avoid misunderstanding, it's safest to just use
**会社員** regardless of sex. サラリーマン is becoming a dated word, anyway.

**EDIT** : Note that both サラリーマン and OL mainly refer to **office** workers.
Blue-collar workers are usually not called サラリーマン even if their income is
salary-based.

Related

  * [What is the difference between キャリアウーマン, OL, and ビジネスウーマン?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/6137/5010)

