dog-collar worker
n. A priest or other member of the clergy who wears a Roman collar.
Examples
2000
A union has launched its first ever pay campaign for a wage rise for vicars. The MSF wants a 50 per cent rise for "dog collar" workers to bring their wages up to GBP 24,000 a year.
—Jeremy Richards, “Pay rise plan has priest's blessing,” UK Newsquest Regional Press — This is Lancashire, November 16, 2000
1998
Only by treating dog-collar workers as ordinary white-collar workers can the "shocking mistreatment by the church's hierarchy" be ended, it was claimed today.
—Gervase Webb, “The ‘bullying bishops’ who have put vicars on the warpath,” The Evening Standard, April 07, 1998
1994 (earliest)
Trouble with clerical staff, I'm afraid, at the MSF union, which has started a section for priests. (Yes, yes, lots of jokes about dog-collar workers, shorter sermons and free collection bargaining.)
—Charles Nevin, “Caption Moonlight,” The Independent (London), September 18, 1994
Posted: October 01, 1997