Age Discrimination Claims Problems
The number of age discrimination claims that are being filed is rising. In 2008, almost 25,000 people filed age-discrimination claims, an amazing 29 percent more than had filed such claims the year before.The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) is supposed to protect workers and job applicants over the age of 40 from discrimination due to age. It applies to employers who have 20 or more employees.Actually proving that age discrimination occurred can be difficult, though. Many age-discrimination claims are not successful. In fact, according to the AARP, fewer than 15 percent of claims are successful. (The actual number may be somewhat higher, because claims that settle privately may not be counted in the statistics).In 2009, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that in order to win an age-discrimination lawsuit, employees must prove that their age was the cause of their employer's actions. Before that ruling, some courts had said that workers could win age-discrimination claims if their employers were unable to show they had a good reason, besides age, for firing or demoting the older worker . The recent Supreme Court decision means that the burden of proof is now on the employee. This makes it harder for employees to win age-discrimination cases.Despite these difficulties, the ADEA has had some notable successes in the past. In 2003, in California, 1,700 public safety workers won $250 million dollars for their age-discrimination claims. In 2009, a group of 90 former Allstate agents won $4.5 million dollars.Cases like these, where employers have to pay large sums, put other employers on notice that it's risky for them to discriminate against older workers. To that extent, the ADEA has been a success. While age discrimination obviously still goes on, and while it can be hard to win age-discrimination claims, employers today have to be more aware of age discrimination and more careful to avoid it than they were before the 1967 law was passed.Being protected from age discrimination is more important now than ever, as more older people are working or looking for work. There are more American workers aged 65 and up in the job market than ever before in history. That trend is likely to continue, as more people are living longer, are in better health, and want or, increasingly, need to continue to work. The larger the numbers of older people who are in the workforce, the more instances of age discrimination will arise, and the more important it becomes to have some kind of effective recourse. Perhaps new legislation, with a bit more bite, will be needed.Sources:65 Up and Looking for Work, Steve Greenhouse, New York Times, October 23, 2009EEOC: Age DiscriminationAARP: Fighting Ageism, Through the AgesAARP: They hired someone youngerEEOC Press Release 9/11/09 Allstate to Pay $4.5 Million to Settle Age Bias SuitLA Times: Supreme Court Makes Age Bias Suits Harder to win
