Older workers claim age discrimination is rampant

Claims of work-related age discrimination in the United States are not unique.

In 2016, the most recent full year available, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 20,857 claims of violations under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act. It was the ninth year in a row that the number of claims has exceeded 20,000, with the highest number in 2008 as the effects of the Great Recession began to truly take hold.

Experts say those numbers do not tell the whole story. Some employment law attorneys note that many potential discrimination cases are never reported because employers may offer a severance deal in exchange for giving up future claims involving age or numerous other types of discrimination.

Claims of work-related age discrimination can involve any aspect of employment and can be difficult to prove, according to AARP.

Older workers say age discrimination is simply a reality.

“Nearly two in three older workers believe that age discrimination exists in the workplace and those who believe so say it is common. Some 16 percent perceive that employers treat them worse on the job because of their age, up from 12 percent in 2007,” according to results from a 2014 AARP survey.

Age discrimination concerns are not limited to any particular industry.

Patrick Button, an assistant economics professor at Tulane University, was part of a research project last year that looked at callback rates from resumes in various entry-level jobs. He said women seeking the positions appeared to be most affected.

“Based on over 40,000 job applications, we find robust evidence of age discrimination in hiring against older women, especially those near retirement age, but considerably less evidence of age discrimination against men,” according to an abstract of the study.

Jacquelyn James, codirector of the Center on Aging and Work at Boston College, said age discrimination in employment is a crucial issue in part because of societal changes that are forcing people to delay retirement. Moves away from definedbenefit pension plans to less assured forms of retirement savings are part of the reason.

James pointed to an annual Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies survey, which found that more than half of workers, most citing financial-related reasons, “expect to retire after age 65 or do not plan to retire, and 56 percent plan to continue working at least part-time in retirement.”

James said she believes that the biases that help lead to age discrimination will be difficult if not impossible to fully end, so efforts should be made to keep biases out of hiring in the first place. Experts say hiring processes are often designed to weed out older workers.

Author Brigette Hyacinth wrote recently on the LinkedIn social media site of her frustration over the many emails she receives from older job candidates who are regularly told they are “overqualified” for positions. One woman told Hyacinth she is 55 with a master’s degree and 25 years of experience and cannot get a job in management.

“Every day, I see exceptional talent going to waste because of age discrimination, and it seems to be getting worse. The applicant tracking systems are set to reject such applications. I remember one company letting go of their older workers then complaining of low productivity and high turnover,” Hyacinth wrote.