AGE DISCRIMINATION

Age Discrimination

Age Discrimination

Introduction

Age discrimination occurs for a variety of reasons. Companies may dismiss older workers because they are paid the highest salaries, or because the business wants to promote a "young" image with younger workers, or moreover, because employers think younger employees will work for less money and be more flexible. When it comes to these issues, older employees need some laws to protect them and give them equal rights in the workplace. Title VII was created to promote equal rights in the workplace, but it did not include the protection of the older generation. Some of the rights of protection as noted by The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in title VII are; "being discriminated against by an employer, labor union or employment agency when applying for a job or while on the job because of their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, or believe that you have been discriminated against because of opposing a prohibited practice or participating in an equal employment opportunity matter." Since Title VII did not offer protection for the older workforce, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) was created. (Reece & Brandt 2001,382)

Discussion

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 was legislated specifically to prohibit age discrimination in employment. It is illegal to restore a individual over 40 with a individual under 40, if age is the reason. It is also illegal to replace a person over forty with a younger person who is also forty; however, it is not illegal to replace people who are earning high wages, with people who will earn less, because they have less seniority. There are strict guidelines to follow in accordance with this exception, such as when it means replacing older workers with younger ones. If the wage deliberations are not the real motivator, and the employer is actually trying to restore older workers with younger ones, that is prohibited. The difficult part is that the employee has to prove that it is the age, not the wages, which is motivating the employer to fire the older workers. (Donohue 2005, 2605)

So, given what has been explained thus far, what is the responsibility of the employer, and what can an employer do to reduce age discrimination. According to the educator and consultant Sheldon Steinhauser, (Stormer & Richardson 2005, 21) discrimination based on age has cost U.S. companies millions of dollars and, as the baby boom ages, these costs are likely to grow exponentially. "As long as business leader's wake up to the fact that discrimination based on age is a critical problem requiring immediate action, the courts will continue to impose fines and award severe punitive damages". Therefore, businesses need to take this issue seriously and recognize age bias and discrimination as the pervasive, escalating issue it is, and if necessary, revise policies, training programs, recruiting methods, and evaluate job designs to eliminate discriminatory language and/or implications. Most importantly, is building morale and higher productivity levels, by demonstrating to older workers that they ...