by Tisa Silver

Who says hard work doesn't pay? These 10 blue-collar jobs show that the color of your collar doesn't necessarily dictate the level of your income.

What Does it Mean to be a Blue-Collar Worker?

Blue-collar jobs are typically classified as involving manual labor and compensation by an hourly wage. Some fields that fall into this category include construction, manufacturing, maintenance and mining.

What it Does Not Mean

Do not mistake blue-collar jobs for easy to land, easy to keep or low-paying ones. Although some blue-collar jobs do not require a four-year degree, many of them require additional education by way of specialized training, a certification or an apprenticeship.

There are several blue-collar jobs that offer competitive packages, relative to their white-collar counterparts.

Rachel Zupek, CareerBuilder.com writer

Let's be honest: Sometimes you don't care about the job -- you just care about the salary.

But it's awfully hard to look for a job that fits both your salary requirements and your skill set. Not to mention that we always tell you that your work and career should be something you love. Ideally, money is just an added benefit.

That being said, we're also realists. We know that times are tough and at this point, some people just need to get paid. Fortunately, there's a new salary tool available that can help you do just that.

Call us shallow, but we did it. We scoured the globe and narrowed down a list of the richest, best-looking men out there. See the gallery and VOTE!

Meg Donohue, CareerBuilder.com writer

As we each search for our personal pot of gold, many of us wonder whether the rainbow leading us to a six-figure paycheck has to be so long. We want financially rewarding jobs, but not everyone is eager to commit the time and money necessary to complete a medical or law degree. The good news is that, even though statistics have shown that more education translates to higher earnings, there are still plenty of six-figure salary jobs for those of us who have decided not to take the seven-years-and-a-stethoscope route.

The following is a list of seven lucrative fields in which the top-earning 25 percent of workers take home more than $100,000 annually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That percentage proves there is real potential for sizeable salaries within these fields, even if your résumé doesn't boast a lengthy list of alma maters. Though some of these positions are filled by people with graduate degrees

By Carol Tice, for

With the economy shrinking, many job-hunters are looking for a new career that pays well – and they need to find one that's not going to disappear. Here are the careers that are forecast for strong growth over the next decade, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics projections through 2016.

Robin Ryan, career coach and author of 60 Seconds and You're Hired says, "I look at where you can make good money, where employers are looking for people and saying they can't find them."

She notes that the federal growth forecasts are a couple of years old, and some fields are undergoing rapid change. Be on the lookout for emerging opportunities, especially those that involve Internet skills. With the cost of education soaring, we asked our experts to focus primarily on careers you can get started in without a four-year degree.