Age Discrimination in Employment

Federal and state laws have long protected people from discrimination of any form, which includes age discrimination, or also known as ageism. Age discrimination is considered a violation that keeps a person, whether young or old, from being employed or from advancing within the workplace that he is qualified to pursue.

Age discrimination is a common practice, which includes denying applicants during hiring or promotion simply because of their age. Such practice does not take into consideration the abilities and competency of the individual, and just places emphasis on his calendar age and how it may limit his capacity to work effectively. There may be legal age limits that prohibit people under a certain age from being employed, but limitations that were imposed to prevent a competent, young person from being considered for a job is unethical and can even be grounds for litigation.

However, a more blatant example of age discrimination practice is the exclusion or bypassing of older qualified people such as in promotion or wage adjustment. In ageism, an older employee may possess the necessary background and job skills, but he will likely resist new and supposedly better methods or procedures. Another concern is that older employees may not be able to provide long term of service enough for the company to get back the expenses incurred during training.

In a personal level, an older employee may be told that he is too old to engage in certain physical activities unlike a younger person. While the younger one may be told that he is too young to engage in some social activities.

The primary law that protects people from Age Discrimination in employment is the ADEA (Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967). The law protects individuals who are 40 years old or older from employment discrimination based on age, and applies to both employees and job applicants. Covered employers are those with more than 20 employees, including federal, state and local government, employment agencies, and labor organizations.

Aside from prohibiting discriminatory acts because of age, ADEA also makes it unlawful to retaliate against an employee for opposing discriminatory employment practices of for being involved in an age discrimination charge against the employer. Also, the ADEA permits employers to favor older employees even if doing so becomes unfavorable to the younger workers who are 40 or older.

Age discrimination is a recurring issue in the workplace. However, few people know how to deal with this kind of problem. If you are being discriminated against at work because of your age, just seek a Los Angeles discrimination lawyer to help you.

Our Los Angeles Labor Attorney handle employment-related issues, ligitate cases and represent workers in employment lawsuits. For more informartion, visit: www.employmentattorneyservices.com and see how we can assist you in filing your employement cases.