Credentialism at Work

63 Pages Posted: 26 Feb 2024 Last revised: 13 Dec 2024

Date Written: February 24, 2024

Abstract

Credentialism is the combination of two related phenomena. First, it is the stacking and use of credentials not for the skills and knowledge they convey but for their signaling power. Second, credentialism is the ever-growing accumulation of credentials with diminishing levels of return from each subsequent credential. In recent decades, credentialism has become the dominant conduit to increasingly scarce quality jobs in the United States. This has resulted in a credentials arms race between workers, promulgated both by job training policy and firm practices. Credentialism bestows financial rewards on credential providers, especially the nondegree credential providers that both U.S. political parties now tout as providing an alternative pathway to higher education. But credentialism burdens individual workers, perpetuates racial inequities and class antagonism, and demobilizes workers by prioritizing individualist credential stacking over collective organizing. This Article lays out the impact of credentialism and outlines possible responses.

Credentialism thrives because of its entrenchment in the meritocracy narrative. The narrative preaches that if workers expend money and time on credentials, they will be rewarded through greater career security, pay, and, ultimately, social mobility. For many workers, however, the narrative is largely a myth perpetuated by laws that encourage a private market for job training and absolve the state and employers of responsibility. That private market flourishes with over a million unique credentials for purchase; these are mostly short-term nondegree credentials with minimal quality oversight. Workers are left to navigate this daunting market alone, with people of color and immigrants especially lacking good guidance and protections against predation.

Central to the responses to credentialism is a partial reallocation of responsibility for quality job training from workers to employers and the state. In particular, applying disparate impact theory would hold employers more responsible for their choices in perpetuating credentialism. Likewise, demanding worker-centered accountability metrics for public funding for job training and establishing tripartite boards that define credential requirements would hold the state more responsible for guiding workers to quality careers with minimal training debt. This push to re-center workers in job training should be viewed as part of a larger project to boost worker bargaining power.

Keywords: employment law, consumer law, labor law, legal theory, law and political economy, job training, meritocracy, economics, education, private law, legal theory

JEL Classification: J00, J2, J3, J4,J5, J6, M5

Suggested Citation

Harris, Jonathan, Credentialism at Work (February 24, 2024). Georgetown Law Journal, Vol. 113, 2025, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles Legal Studies Research Paper No.2024-05, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4737191

Jonathan Harris (Contact Author)

LMU Loyola Law School ( email )

919 Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211
United States

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