Social Sustainability
Sticky Floor
The pattern of women remaining trapped in low-paid, low-mobility jobs — the bottom-end counterpart of the glass ceiling.
Definition
The sticky floor describes labour market patterns in which women (and often other disadvantaged groups) remain concentrated in low-paid, low-status jobs with little prospect of advancement — "stuck" at the bottom of the occupational ladder while the glass ceiling blocks progress at the top. Causes include occupational segregation, part-time and care penalties, lack of training access, and discrimination in promotion from entry-level positions; the effect is measured by gender gaps that are widest at the bottom of the wage distribution.
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