There exists today a common mindset among older white-collar workers: “I wouldn’t be hired today”. This often doesn’t have anything to do with their ability to perform their jobs. Rather, it’s a function of Degree Inflation. This is where employers demand a baccalaureate degree for middle-skill jobs that previously did not require one.
Some 61% of employers have rejected applicants with the requisite skills and experience simply because they didn’t have a college degree, according to a 2017 Harvard Business School study.
The authors believe, if current trends continue, “as many as 6.2 million workers could be affected by Degree Inflation—meaning their lack of a bachelor’s degree could preclude them from qualifying for the same job with another employer”.
Stop and let this sink in. No matter how good they are at the job for which they are applying, no matter how experienced they are and no matter how much value they could add to the company they want to work for, they will not get the job.
State and local laws impose additional limits...
Ø New York City prohibits employers from discriminating against the unemployed or asking about prior earning history.
Ø Twenty-nine states bar public employers from inquiring about criminal history and nine states prevent private employers from doing the same.
Ø Last year the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued CSX Transportation, a railroad company, because men passed the company’s applicant physical-fitness tests at a disproportionately higher rate than women.
Allow me to expand on the last bullet point above. Who is the real culprit who created the discrimination in the bullet point above?...
>Was it Thomas Jefferson for planting false hopes in all of us by throwing around such willy-nilly phrases like “All men (certainly he meant, ‘all men and women’) are created equal”? 
>Was it the fault of the physically fit parents of future physically fit job applicants who told them to get off the couch and go outside and climb a tree?
>Was it the fault of the future physically fit job applicants who got off the couch and went outside and made themselves physically fit?
If you understand the next 2 paragraphs, please use the Comments Section of this blog to explain them to me...
Yet degree inflation has obvious Disparate-Impact Implications (this is fella...huh?).
When determining Disparate Impact Enforcement agencies often rely on the “four-fifths” rule of thumb: If the selection rate for any race, sex or ethnic group is less than four-fifths that of the group with the highest selection rate, Disparate Impact is likely. Some 61% of Asians in the labor force, age 25 and up, have a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Just under 40% of Whites have degrees, compared with 29% of Blacks and 20% of Hispanics. Under the four-fifths rule, college-degree requirements disproportionately affect White Workers when compared with Asians, and Black and Hispanic Workers when compared with Whites and Asians.
The Harvard Study also showed that College Graduates filling Middle-Skill Positions...
Ø Cost more to employ.
Ø Have higher turnover rates.
Ø Tend to be less engaged.
Ø Are no more productive than high-school graduates doing the same job.
Go back and read the above four bullet points again and then picture the looks on the faces of Widget R Us Board of Directors after the CEO makes the following statement, “These four bullet points prove conclusively that it makes no good business sense to continue with our policy of requiring College Degrees for Middle-Skill Positions. I now ask for a unanimous show of hands from this board certifying that we are in agreement about continuing our illogical policy of requiring College Degrees for Middle-Sill Positions. We should also incorporate this requirement into our Vision Statement so that future Boards of Directors will see the indefensible course of action that this Board has laid out and will be reluctant to ever attempt to rectify and/or correct the ill-fated and simply nutty path we have chosen today”.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
