Age Discrimination Claims

Have you experienced age discrimination at work?

If you have experienced age discrimination in your workplace, you are in good company.

AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons) reported that in 2020 more than 75 percent of workers over 50 reported seeing or experiencing age discrimination in their place of work. Following the Great Recession of 2008, AARP reported that it took displaced older workers twice as long as their younger counterparts to find new jobs, often at lower salaries.

Although people work longer and later in life than ever before, productive older employees often find themselves on the short end of layoffs or other adverse decisions as employers seek to trim payrolls or make other generational-based changes in their workforce.

According to another AARP survey:

• Nearly 25 percent of workers aged 45 or older receive negative comments about their age from management and coworkers.
• Three out of five older workers have either observed or experienced age discrimination at work.
• More than half of older workers are pushed out of longtime jobs prematurely as employers seek to “freshen” their workforce.
• Seventy-six percent of older workers say their age is an issue when seeking new employment and, when they do find new positions, 90 percent report those new jobs are at lower salaries.

As an older worker, you do have rights

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits age discrimination. The federal statute makes it illegal for employers with 20 or more employees to treat those over 40 years of age or older differently than their younger colleagues based on their age. You must be offered the same rights, training, and opportunities for advancement.

Many states also have anti-discrimination statutes that are even more protective of older employees than the federal law with regard to age discriminatory practices.

If you have experienced age-related discrimination in the workplace through:

• An age-related termination;
• Lack of equal opportunity for advancement;
• Lack of equal access to workplace resources and assignment of equal opportunities; or
• Harassment through age-related comments in the workplace, you have rights.