Age Discrimination - Your age should never matter in your employment! - Employee Rights

Who does the ADEA Protect?

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) is a federal law that provides protections to workers and job applicants who are over the age of 40 years of age and applied to:

Employers with at least 20 employees
Employment agencies
The federal government
State and local government (though remedies are often limited)
Labor organizations with at least 25 members

How does the ADEA Protect Older Workers?

The ADEA prohibits age discrimination in decisions about hiring, firing, layoffs, pay, benefits, promotions, demotions, performance reviews or any other condition of employment.

Under the ADEA, employers can’t:

Mention age or say that a certain age is preferred in job ads and recruiting materials; it is questionable but not automatically illegal to ask for date of birth or graduation on a job application
Set age limits for training programs
Retaliate against you if you file charges of age discrimination or help the government investigate charges
Force you to retire at a certain age (except for a few narrow exceptions)

The law also prohibits policies and practices that have a “disparate impact” on older workers. These are policies that appear to be age-neutral but fall more harshly on older workers. An example is a school district that announces it won’t hire teachers with more than 20 years of experience. Policies or practices that have a disproportionately adverse impact on older workers are unlawful unless the employer can prove they are based on a reasonable factor other than age.