As the working population grows, many employees face new challenges related to their age and life situation. And unfortunately for some of those employees, age discrimination is one of those true challenges.
Do you feel that you have experienced age discrimination in your workplace? To help you decide what to do next, here are a few ways that such discriminatory behavior can occur.
1. Hiring Discrimination
Acting against a person due to their age may start even before you are hired. Potential employers are legally allowed to ask an applicant’s age, so the stage may be set for that business to show a preference for younger workers. Since older workers may have a shorter work life, cost more to insure, or have less familiarity with modern techniques, some companies don’t want to take what they feel is a risk.
Identifying such discrimination is challenging, though. It is rarely stated up front. But if you’re familiar with the industry and community in your area, you may be able to identify a pattern in the hiring choices among your peers.
2. Discriminatory Policies
Discrimination in a company’s policies and procedures can be intentional or it can be unintentional. A company policy that reduces the amount of company-paid insurance premiums at a certain age would be discriminatory against older workers.
More subtly, what about a company that only allows its office workers to use standing desks when there is no valid business reason? Such a policy might not be overtly aimed at older workers, but it could easily discriminate against them.
3. Age-Based Harassment
Harassment is largely thought of in terms of sexual harassment. But it can occur in many other contexts. If a younger supervisor constantly makes unkind reference about an older employee’s age or disparages their generation, they may be harassing that person. Like unwanted sexual advances do, harassment about one’s age intentionally causes a hostile, uncomfortable work environment.
4. Inner-Group Discrimination
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects workers over the age of 40, but discrimination can still occur within this group. Consider, for example, a company with a pattern of promoting 45-year-old workers but does so at the expense of 60-year-old employees. Such actions essentially pit both protected groups against each other while trying to skirt the law with promotions of younger protected workers.
5. Withheld Advancement
One of the most common ways that an employer might act against the interests of older employees is through advancement opportunities.
What are some of these missed opportunities? The worker may not be offered promotions or given important projects to oversee. Younger workers may be invited to participate in meetings or strategy sessions. Younger workers might also be given more opportunities to get specialized training or updates on new technology — often in the mistaken belief that older employees won’t be as receptive to new ideas.
6. Early Retirement
Changes to federal law now prohibit a company from forcing out older employees. This means that employees are generally not forcibly shown the door. But the business might create an environment that deliberately encourages the older ones to voluntarily choose retirement due to a hostile work environment.
Have you detected any of these forms of age discrimination? The time to act is now. Older employees need to protect their job status as quickly as possible to avoid potentially expensive derailment of their career. And you may not be the only one to suffer from this unfair treatment.
At Siben & Siben LLP, we can help. Contact us today to discuss your particular situation and start forming a plan to ensure the best results for you and any other older workers at your company.