silver ceiling

== English == === Etymology === silver (suggesting the gray hair characteristic of advanced age) + ceiling (suggesting a barrier to upward advancement); modeled on glass ceiling, the first of such figurative ceiling terms. === Noun === silver ceiling An informal (and often unacknowledged) barrier to promotion or advancement, in employment and elsewhere, for middle-aged and elderly people. Coordinate terms: gray ceiling; more at glass ceiling § Coordinate terms === See also === ageism