Your Rights Against Age Discrimination
by
Attorney Amy DelPo
State and federal laws protect workers from discrimination based on age.
Stereotypes about older people abound in our culture, but employers are not allowed to rely on them when making workplace decisions. A number of state and federal laws prohibit employers from discriminating against employees and applicants based on age.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act
The federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act, or ADEA ( 29 U.S.C. §§ 621-634), is the primary federal law that prohibits employers from discriminating against employees and applicants who are at least 40 years old based on age.
The ADEA protects workers from age discrimination in every phase of the employment relationship, including job advertisements, interviewing, hiring, compensation, promotion, discipline, job evaluations, demotion, training, job assignments, and termination. In a recent case, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the ADEA prohibits practices and policies that are seemingly neutral, but have a disproportionately negative impact on older workers (disparate impact), as well as those that explicitly treat older workers worse than younger workers (disparate treatment). (See Smith v. City of Jackson, Mississippi, 125 S.Ct. 1536 (2005).)
Not only does the ADEA prohibit employers from discriminating against older workers in favor of those who are younger than 40, it also prohibits employers from discriminating among older workers. For example, an employer cannot hire a 43-year-old rather than a 53-year-old simply based on age.
The ADEA applies to all private employers with 20 or more employees and to federal and local governments. It also applies to state governments, although their employees cannot sue them directly for age discrimination.
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