The gray ceiling is a business/societal phenomenon where the existing workforce of those born during the

baby boom A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of births. This demography, demographic phenomenon is usually an ascribed characteristic within the population of a specific nationality, nation or culture. Baby booms are caused by various ...

era prevents the younger generations of

Generation X Generation X (often shortened to Gen X) is the Demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials. Researchers and popular media often use the mid-1960s as its starting birth years and the ...

and

Millennials Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s a ...

from advancing or being promoted at their jobs.

General

The gray ceiling phenomenon is named after the better-known

glass ceiling A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to women, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy.Federal Glass Ceiling Commission''Solid Investments: Making Ful ...

and is largely an unintentional consequence of demographics, though another factor is Boomers retiring later, due in part to the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

having depleted their retirement savings. By sheer number they are also competing within their own generation and their children who are joining the workforce. As the children of the baby boomers advance from below, the Gen-Xers, usually with middle management jobs, feel threatened and trapped in a job that is going nowhere and might be given away to the next younger candidate. Negative consequences of the gray ceiling include slowed innovation.

References

Social phenomena Cultural generations Workforce {{labor-stub