Workers with experience, skills, and diverse perspectives are being held back by an invisible barrier – the paper ceiling. The paper ceiling represents the degree screens, biased algorithms, stereotypes, and exclusive professional networking that block career opportunities for more than 70 million workers in the U.S. who are STARs - Skilled Through Alternative Routes rather than a bachelor’s degree. When we tear the paper ceiling, employers gain access to a massive and diverse pool of skilled candidates for hard-to-fill jobs, while STARs get a fair chance to earn the higher wages that lead to upward economic mobility. It’s time to tear the paper ceiling and see the STARs beyond it. STARs, employers and everyone can join the movement at TearThePaperCeiling.org.
STARs represent a massive pool of skilled and diverse talent.
STARs are the 50% of workers who have developed valuable skills through community college, certificate programs, military service, or on-the-job learning, rather than through a bachelor’s degree. They include 61% of Black workers, 55% of Hispanic workers, 61% of veterans, and 66% of rural workers.
The paper ceiling has severely reduced STARs' access to higher wage jobs and upward mobility.
Nearly 70% of new jobs insist on a bachelor's degree, but fewer than 50% of workers have one. Over the last 20 years, degree screens have in part cost STARs access to 7.4 million jobs. As a result, STARs must now work thirty years to earn the same wage that college graduates earn from day one of their careers.
Tearing the paper ceiling can help companies find quality candidates for hard-to-fill jobs, while opening up pathways to upward economic mobility for STARs
By adopting skills-based hiring practices, like removing degree screens, companies can screen-in STARs with the skills for hard-to-fill roles in growing fields like healthcare, information technology, customer service and more. Consider the career trajectory from home health aide to patient care coordinator: each role builds on the skills needed for the previous role, and each offers higher wages and more opportunities for growth.
Tearing the paper ceiling can help companies diversify their talent pool and achieve their DEIB objectives.
In the same way that bachelor degree screens have a disparate impact on Black and Hispanic workers, skills-based hiring practices that level the playing field for STARs can help employers address diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) goals as well as address skilled talent needs. In fact, given STARs include the majority of Black (61%), Hispanic (55%) and rural (66%) workers, no DEIB effort can succeed without STARs.
What is the Paper Ceiling?
- The paper ceiling is the invisible barrier that comes at every turn for workers without a bachelor's degree.
- The lack of alumni networks, biased algorithms, degree screens, stereotypes and misperceptions contribute to the paper ceiling, creating barriers to upward economic mobility for STARs—even though they have demonstrated skills for higher-wage work.
- Today, even as companies seek diverse and experienced talent, the paper ceiling often comes between them and the STARs that could thrive in their organizations.
- The result has been a severe decline in STARs’ upward mobility, at the same time that companies struggle to fill millions of 21st century jobs with skilled talent.
Who Does the Paper Ceiling Effect:
- STARs represent 50% of the U.S. workforce today and have developed valuable skills through alternative routes such as military service, community college, training programs, partial college completion, or, most commonly, on-the-job experience.
- STARs have valuable skills for in-demand jobs, but they face a barrier between better jobs and employers in need of their talent.
- Additionally, the paper ceiling has had a negative impact on diversity in the workforce: 61% of Black workers, 55% of Hispanic workers, and 66% of rural workers of all races are STARs.