AARP Hearing Center
Older workers contribute valuable experience and knowledge to their employers and to the economy. There’s no doubt that today’s older Americans are living longer, they are healthier, and they are working longer than previous generations. Already, workers age 50 and older make up over one-third of the labor force, and those age 65-plus are the fastest-growing age group in the workforce.
But despite these trends and laws designed to prevent age discrimination, bias in the workplace is still common and often not taken seriously. More than six in 10 older workers report that they have seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace.
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AARP is calling on Congress to strengthen the laws against age discrimination so that employers and the courts treat age discrimination as seriously as other forms of discrimination.
Challenges Ahead
Passed in 1967 during the nation’s civil rights era, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits job discrimination against workers 40 and older. The ADEA and subsequent improvements to the law brightened the employment landscape for older workers. And for decades, the courts treated age discrimination like other forms of job discrimination: Proven age discrimination could not play any role in an employer’s actions.
But over the past couple of decades, courts have interpreted the ADEA in ways that give older workers far less protection than other civil rights laws. In 2009 the Supreme Court changed the law, making it much harder to prove age discrimination than it is to prove other types of job discrimination, such as race or gender bias. By heightening the burden of proof, the Court signaled to employers that some amount of proven age discrimination is legally allowed.
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