Age discrimination is something that the average employer knows very little about. I think most employers are aware there is a law preventing age discrimination, but they are unaware that certain actions or statements—however subtle they may be—may constitute age discrimination and may lead to an age discrimination claim or a lawsuit.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2007, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received 19,103 age discrimination claims.The EEOC resolved 16,134 age discrimination charges in FY 2007 and recovered $66.8 million in monetary benefits for charging parties and other aggrieved individuals (not including monetary benefits obtained through litigation).
Mistakes Employers Make
Supervisors and employees occasionally make mistakes, which can lead to claims of age discrimination in the workplace and potentially land them and/or their company in legal hot water. Examples of such mistakes include:
- Making age-related jokes or making comments to an older worker, such as, “Hey, Joe, you seem to be moving kind of slow lately—have you thought about retiring? (wink, wink)”
- Making assumptions that all older workers are “slow” and lack energy or flexibility and then wording employment ads to indicate younger workers are desired, or advertising job openings by word-of-mouth and using the phrase, “I need a young go-getter!”
- Refusing to hire older workers because they are deemed to be “overqualified” or because they will drive up the cost of health insurance premiums.
- Failing to recognize that an older candidate five or so years from retirement may very well stay in the job longer than a younger candidate, who may think nothing of job-hopping for the next increase in salary or opportunity.
- Consistently failing to consider qualified older workers for promotions or transfer to more desirable positions.
- Forcing a discussion with an older employee about his or her “plans for retirement,” especially one who is approaching retirement age.
- Selecting workers for layoffs based on their salary without undertaking a related analysis to determine whether use of this layoff criterion will have a negative, disparate impact on older workers—higher paid workers tend to be in middle/upper management and tend to be older and younger workers tend to earn less.
- Failing to focus on and address an individual’s job performance, rather than focusing on the age of the individual in the job.
In my next Insight, I’ll give you steps to take to prevent and reduce age discrimination in your workplace.
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