Why Do Jobs Require a High School Diploma?

Updated September 2026 · Employment figures, statutes and testing rules are sourced at the end

Most employers ask for a high school diploma or equivalent because it is the entry standard for the largest single block of work in the United States, and because it is cheap to state and cheap to check. In 2025, occupations whose typical entry-level education is a high school diploma or equivalent accounted for 60.3 million jobs, or 35.4% of all US employment, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For a minority of jobs the requirement is written into a statute, a regulation or a licensing rule and the employer has no discretion at all. For the rest it is a screening habit, a quick proxy for baseline reading, writing and arithmetic, and for having finished something that took four years.

That distinction matters, because it tells you when the requirement is negotiable. This page covers how many jobs actually list it, what employers think it proves, where the rule is legally mandatory, what “or equivalent” means, how employers verify it, and what to do if you do not have one.

How many jobs require a high school diploma?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics assigns every occupation a typical entry-level education, meaning the level of education most workers need to enter that occupation. It is not a legal requirement and not a guarantee that a given employer will insist on it, but it is the closest thing to a national count of where the bar sits.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, employment by typical entry-level education, 2025–2035 (table last modified September 8, 2026).

Three things follow from that table. The diploma tier is the biggest one, at more than a third of all jobs. A further 23.6% of employment sits in occupations that need no formal credential at all, so roughly three in five US jobs are in occupations where the typical entry point is a high school diploma or less. And the fast growth is happening above the line and not at it. The diploma tier is projected to grow 2.0% over the decade against 3.5% for employment as a whole, while master’s-level occupations grow 11.0%.

That is a count of occupations, not of job postings. Individual employers set their own floors, and many roles in the “no formal credential” tier are still advertised with “high school diploma preferred.” If you want the earnings side of this comparison rather than the head count, the figures by credential are collected in our salary by education level hub.

What the requirement is doing for the employer

For the large majority of jobs, no law obliges the employer to ask. They ask for three practical reasons.

It is a volume filter

An entry-level posting can draw hundreds of applications, and the diploma line is the cheapest possible cut, one field on a form and one yes/no in an applicant tracking system. It is also the reason most open to challenge, because a filter chosen for convenience was never matched to the job.

It is a proxy for baseline skills

Employers read the diploma as shorthand for reading at an adult level, writing a clear message, handling basic arithmetic and following written procedure. It is a weak proxy, because a diploma certifies no specific skill and graduation requirements vary by state and district. It is free, though, whereas testing every applicant costs money and creates its own legal exposure.

It is a record of persistence, and it is verifiable

A diploma shows that someone completed a multi-year commitment on a schedule set by somebody else. Unlike “reliable” or “hard-working,” it is a fact a third party can confirm. Requirements that are easy to verify survive in job descriptions long after anyone remembers why they were added.

Jobs where the requirement is written into the rules

A smaller group of jobs is different, because the employer is following a statute, a regulation or a licensing rule and cannot waive the requirement even if they want to. Two federal examples show the pattern.

• TSA security screeners. Federal law sets the standard directly. A screener must “possess a high school diploma, a general equivalency diploma, or experience that the Administrator has determined to be sufficient for the individual to perform the duties of the position” (49 U.S.C. § 44935(f)(1)(A)). Note the third option. The statute itself allows experience in place of either document.
• Military enlistment. Army Regulation 601-210 (March 20, 2026) sorts applicants by education credential. “High school diploma producing programs” are Tier 1; a GED or other alternate high school credential is Tier 2. The regulation also requires the credential to be verified with the school by the principal, registrar, guidance counselor or custodian of records before an applicant can process.

Beyond federal employment, the usual sources of a hard requirement are state occupational licensing boards, registered apprenticeship programs, which publish their own minimum qualifications, and occasionally a client contract or insurance condition the employer is bound by. With licensing boards, many trades, health support roles and personal-services licenses set an education floor as a condition of the license, and the floor differs by state. If an employer says the requirement is fixed, it is fair to ask which rule it comes from. If the answer is a license, check the board’s own page, because that requirement belongs to the license and not to the job, and it follows you to the next employer.

Can an employer legally require a high school diploma?

Yes, as a general matter. The EEOC addressed this directly in a 2012 question-and-answer document, after an informal discussion letter about the Americans with Disabilities Act was widely misreported as a ban. The agency’s own words: “Nothing in the letter prohibits employers from adopting a requirement that a job applicant have a high school diploma.”

Two limits apply, and both are older than the confusion.

Disparate impact under Title VII. In Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) the Supreme Court struck down a high school diploma requirement that disproportionately excluded Black applicants and that the employer could not show was related to job performance. The rule from that case still governs. A neutral requirement that screens out a protected group is unlawful unless it is job related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity.

Reasonable accommodation under the ADA. If an applicant says a disability prevented them from graduating, the EEOC’s position is that the employer may have to let that person “demonstrate the ability to do the job in some other way” where the requirement is not job related and consistent with business necessity. That other way can be work experience, a demonstration of the essential functions, or other evidence. The employer may ask for appropriate documentation that the disability actually prevented graduation, and even when an applicant does demonstrate ability, the employer “may still choose the best qualified person for the job.”

In practice a blanket diploma rule is legal but not bulletproof. When it is challenged, the employer carries the burden of tying it to the work, and the applicant does not. Telling an employer that a disability kept you from finishing is not a dead end.

What “or equivalent” actually means

Almost every posting says “high school diploma or equivalent,” and the phrase is deliberate. The equivalent is a high school equivalency credential issued by a state after you pass an approved test. Two tests dominate.

Sources: GED Testing Service (test subjects, timings and score levels); HiSET / PSI state requirements list, September 2026. Some states accept more than one test toward the same state credential, so check your state’s page before you register.

For most private employers the two are interchangeable. The posting says “or equivalent,” the application has a dropdown that covers it, and the check confirms the state record. Where they are not interchangeable, it is written down. The Army example above is the clearest, with a diploma at Tier 1, a GED at Tier 2, and the tier on the paperwork. Our guide to the high school equivalency diploma explains what the state credential is called and how the routes differ, and how to list a GED on a resume covers the exact wording to use once you have one.

How employers check

Education verification is a record lookup, not an inspection of your certificate. Nobody holds the paper up to the light.

• Directly with the school or district. The employer, or a recruiter acting for them, contacts the registrar or custodian of records and asks whether you graduated and when. This is exactly the process the Army regulation prescribes for enlistment, down to who is allowed to confirm it, whether the principal, registrar, school guidance counselor or custodian of records.
• Through a background screening company. This triggers the Fair Credit Reporting Act. According to the FTC and EEOC’s joint guidance for employers, the employer must tell you in a standalone written notice that a report may be used for employment decisions, get your written permission, and, before rejecting you because of the report, give you a copy of it along with “A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.” After an adverse decision they must tell you, name the screening company, make clear the company did not make the decision, and explain your right to dispute what the report says.
• By asking you for a document. The common request is a transcript showing the graduation date rather than the diploma itself, because a transcript comes from the school and carries a date. Sending a transcript instead of a diploma covers when that is accepted, and high school diploma verification explains what the check returns.

What matters, then, is that your answer matches the record. A mismatch in the name you graduated under, the school or the year comes back “unable to verify,” a worse outcome than an accurate answer would ever have been. Claiming a diploma you were not issued is a separate and more serious problem. See what can happen if you lie about graduating high school.

What to do if you do not have one

Finishing is common and unremarkable: 95% of 25- to 29-year-olds had completed at least high school as of 2022, and adult programs exist precisely for the rest. Three routes are open, and they are not mutually exclusive.

1. Finish an adult high school diploma. School districts, community colleges and adult education centers run credit-recovery and adult diploma programs, some of them free. You graduate with a diploma from a school, which is the Tier 1 document in every rule that distinguishes between them. How to get a high school diploma as an adult compares the programs and what they cost in time.
2. Take an equivalency test. The GED or HiSET produces a state-issued credential that satisfies “or equivalent” in most postings and in federal hiring standards. It is usually the faster route; it is not free, and the fee is set by your state.
3. Apply where the credential is not the gate. Nearly a quarter of US employment sits in occupations with no formal educational credential as the typical entry point. Jobs without a high school diploma lists the fields where that is genuinely true and what they pay.

What not to do is claim a diploma you do not hold. Aside from the verification problem above, it converts a gap in your history, which an employer may not care about, into a misrepresentation, which every employer cares about.

If you graduated but cannot find the document

This is a different problem with an easier fix. Your graduation is a record held by the school or the district, and it survives the loss of the paper.

• Ask your old high school or its district for an official transcript showing the graduation date. This is what employers usually want, and it is normally cheaper and faster than a replacement diploma.
• If the school has closed or merged, the records moved to the district, the county or the state education agency. Finding your high school diploma online walks through tracing the record, and obtaining your diploma after graduation covers replacement requests.
• Give the office your name at graduation (including a former surname), your date of birth and your graduation year. Missing or mismatched details are the usual reason a request stalls.

Frequently asked questions

What percent of jobs require a high school diploma?

Occupations whose typical entry-level education is a high school diploma or equivalent made up 35.4% of US employment in 2025, or 60.3 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Another 23.6% of employment is in occupations that need no formal educational credential, so about three in five jobs sit at or below the diploma line. Individual employers can still ask for more than the occupation typically requires.

Is it illegal to hire someone without a high school diploma?

No. There is no general law against hiring a non-graduate, and for most jobs the requirement is the employer’s own choice. The exceptions run the other way. Specific statutes, regulations and occupational licenses impose an education floor for particular roles, and in those cases the employer cannot waive it. Federal law does this for TSA screeners.

Do high school diplomas show up on background checks?

Education is verified when the employer asks for it, and it is a common component of a pre-employment check. The screener contacts the school or district, or queries a records service, and confirms whether you graduated and when. If a screening company runs it, the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to written notice, to give or withhold permission, and to see the report before an adverse decision is final.

Does a GED count as “or equivalent”?

Yes in most hiring. A GED or HiSET produces a state-issued high school equivalency credential, and “or equivalent” in a job posting is written to include it. The exceptions are specific and written down. Military enlistment classifies a diploma as Tier 1 and an alternate credential as Tier 2, so if you are aiming at a regulated role, read that program’s own rule rather than assuming.

Can an employer require a diploma for a job that clearly does not need one?

They can adopt the requirement, but it is open to challenge. Under Griggs v. Duke Power Co. a requirement that disproportionately excludes a protected group is unlawful unless the employer can show it is job related and consistent with business necessity, and under the ADA an applicant whose disability prevented graduation may be entitled to demonstrate their ability another way. Both doctrines put the burden on the employer to connect the requirement to the work.

Sources

• US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, employment by typical entry-level education, 2025–2035 (last modified September 8, 2026). bls.gov/emp/tables/education-summary.htm
• US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “What You Should Know: Questions and Answers about the EEOC, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and High School Diplomas” (February 7, 2012). eeoc.gov
• Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971). Diploma and testing requirements with a disparate impact must be job related and consistent with business necessity. supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/401/424
• 49 U.S.C. § 44935(f)(1)(A), employment standards for TSA screening personnel. law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/44935
• Army Regulation 601-210, Active and Reserve Components Enlistment Program (March 20, 2026). Tier 1 high school diploma producing programs, Tier 2 alternate high school credentials, and education verification procedure. armypubs.army.mil
• GED Testing Service, test subjects and timings, and score levels (145 to pass each subject). ged.com/about_test/test_subjects and ged.com/about_test/scores
• HiSET (PSI Services), state requirements and the list of participating states and territories, September 2026. hiset.org/get-started/state-requirements
• Federal Trade Commission and EEOC, Background Checks: What Employers Need to Know (2014). FCRA notice, authorization, pre-adverse action and adverse action steps. ftc.gov
• National Center for Education Statistics, Educational Attainment of Young Adults (Condition of Education). 95% of 25- to 29-year-olds had completed at least high school in 2022. nces.ed.gov