Age discrimination in employment and society

Age Discrimination

HUMAN RESOURCE Management -- BA 544

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Protecting Older Workers: The Failure of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967

Source (publication name or URL):

Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9299ee55-86c6-4ee5-8518-237fd021170b%40sessionmgr13&vid=4&hid=

Jessica Z. Rothenberg & Daniel S. Gardner

Publication Date:

Subject / Main Ideas / Concepts of article:

This article critically analyzes the Age

Discrimination Employment Act (ADEA) and asserts that the legislation is unsound. The authors review the history of age discrimination in the work place, They contend that the law is based on invalid assumptions about age discrimination and that it has been ineffective

and mostly unenforced over the past 40+ years.

Identify points that seemed new or insightful to you:

Current economic conditions have caused over 20% of Americans over the age of 45 to postpone plans for retirement.

Employers are hesitant to hire older workers because they believe them to be difficult to train, resistant to change, less flexible and adaptable than younger workers.

ADEA was originally intended to eliminate age discrimination against middle-age workers. The idea being that it would eliminate age discrimination against middle-aged workers and serve an economic function by increasing the supply of skilled labor and improving the productivity of the workforce.

The percentage of older adults in the workforce, full-time, part-time, or actively seeking employment, has been increasing since the mid-1990s.

It is difficult to prove age-based discrimination. The ADEA also allows for several exceptions that employers cite in their defenses. The law says that age may be considered in employment decisions where it is a "bona fide occupational qualification" meaning that an employee over a certain age would "not be capable of performing the job in a manner that is reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business." This clause allows employers to treat older adults as a homogeneous group, instead of evaluating each individual on his or her merits and abilities.

What questions, concerns, difficulties do these reading raise?

This article raises many questions regarding what can be done to fix this problem. The prevailing economic conditions indicate that older Americans will be extending their careers, yet the number of job opportunities is dwindling and new, younger workers are entering the workforce constantly. This combined with spending cuts to programs aimed at assisting the elderly, and the current condition of the Social Security system paints a bleak future for the baby boomers.