paper ceiling

noun

Etymology

paper (a piece of paper being the diploma representing a university or college degree) + ceiling (suggesting a barrier to upward advancement); modeled on glass ceiling, the first of such figurative ceiling terms.

Definitions

  1. An informal (and often unacknowledged) barrier to promotion or advancement, in employment…

    An informal (and often unacknowledged) barrier to promotion or advancement, in employment and elsewhere, for people who do not have a university or college degree.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for paper ceiling. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA