Refers to the invisible barrier that often faces workers without a bachelor's degree. Opportunity@Work notes that the paper ceiling holds back more than 70 million workers who are STARs (Skilled Through Alternative Routes) rather than through a bachelor' s degree.  They include 50% of the workforce that has developed valuable skills through on-the-job experience, military service, community college training programs, and partial college completion.

Research has found that as many as 90% of large companies use some form of automated applicant tracking system (ATS) to screen resumes. This filters out about half of all applications. This research also revealed that more than 60% of employers rejected otherwise qualified candidates because they did not have a bachelor's degree. [Fuller, J., Raman, M., et al. (Oct. 2017). Dismissed By Degrees. Published by Accenture, Grads of Life, Harvard Business School]

The paper ceiling can be ameliorated by workers and companies uniting to create a new and more equitable future of work in which skills matter more than what is on paper, where workers and companies work together to tear down the paper ceiling.

Related terms: Degree screening/screens, stereotypes, misconceptions, biased hiring algorithms