Human Resource Management: US Age Discrimination Act

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Table of Contents

Introduction
History
Organization Involved In the Act
Conclusion (the need for the age discrimination act today)
References

Introduction

In 1967 the congress along with the equal pay act and the civil rights act of women and minorities passed the age discrimination act. This act was known as the age discrimination in the employment act of 1967. Even though gender discrimination and women studies have been researched a lot, there are very few studies available for age discrimination. However, it should be noted that the number of citizens of the United States aging from forty and above has been increasing and therefore this topic is a rather important one and various researchers have started to analyze it critically.

According to the projections made by the United States census bureau, in 2025 the population of the United States aged 65 and above will grow from only 13% to 19%. Moreover, the number of people aged 55 and above will increase from 21% to 30%. The increase in the aging population in many industrialized nations is due to rapidly developing medical conditions and better health situations. This aging population is the basis of discriminatory behavior due to which the age discrimination act was passed (Neumark, n.d). According to this act, there can be no discrimination against persons ranging above 40 years of age. This act extends a little further and sets pensions and benefits standards too. These standards have to be provided by the employer to the general public so that they know about the needs of the older citizens.

This act can be found under chapter 14 of title 29 of the United States Code, 29 U.S.C. § 621 through 29 U.S.C. § 634. It became an act on December 15, 1967(Pub L No 90-202, 81 stat. 602) (The US equal employment opportunity commission, 2008).

According to many critics, the age discrimination Act provides less protection than the civil rights act. The age discrimination Act is applicable to employers with a number of employees above 20, whereas the civil rights activists took the employers who had more than 15 employees, in notice too. However, both of these include the overseas employees also. Moreover, if the organization is providing employment to United States citizens but is operating abroad, then in such a case also it cannot violate this act. At this point, it should be noted that all of this is applicable where the Age discrimination Act does not violate the local laws of that place.

In industries where public safety is at stake, there the employer can put age limits. For example; in the case of pilots and bus drivers there has to be an age limit in order to ensure the safety of the passengers (Find US Law, 2008). The age discrimination act also prohibits discrimination in other areas also such as federally-funded health and human services programs. Therefore it can be said that the age discrimination act is applicable to all sorts of discrimination, be it in employment or health, etc.

History

In 1956, the United States civil rights commission abolished all rules which prohibited entries of any US citizens above a certain age limit. Executive order number 11141 was issued in 1964. This order further prohibited discrimination based on age in any federal organization. However, at this time even though any discrimination based on age was not allowed, there was yet no legal and formal way of lodging a complaint (Miller, 1966). Even though the 1956 act of the older Americans actually prohibited any discrimination in employment based on age, again, there were still no administrative procedures to ensure the application of these acts.

From 1930 to 1960 the age discrimination acts passed earlier had administrative procedures in many states. According to Miller and Lockard (1966; 1968), at that time the commission had the power to conduct a hearing and even stop an employer from such discriminatory acts. After when the federal legislation has established the role of the anti-discrimination commission was further strengthened. It was now able to reinforce the age discrimination act and act on lodged complaints too. Then in 1967, the age discrimination in the employment act further established a range (40 to 65 years), within which the ADEA was able to stop discrimination by any employer against older citizens. This act was able to promote employment opportunities in citizens based on their abilities and qualification and in such cases age was no barrier.

In 1975, the Age discrimination act was further amended in which age discrimination in any federally assisted programs was prohibited. The federal or local government units distributing funds could not discriminate against any person on the basis of age and the health or other assistance provided by the state catering to the needs of the older citizens in a much better way.

Another amendment was made in 1978 which removed the mandatory retirement age of 70. This amendment further increased the anti-discrimination age to almost 70 which was previously only 65 (Stone, 1980). 1979 was a breakthrough for the age discrimination act. In this year the ADEA was taken over by the EEOC (Equal Employment opportunity commission). This not only gave more power to the ADEA but it was now equipped with more resources also (Stone, 1980).

Until now, the employers were able to reduce the retirement through other financial benefits as this meant not giving retirement benefits to the workers. However, in 1986, the anti-discrimination age limit which was previously 70 was removed and hence there was no upper limit of the protected group. Moreover, the employer now had to offer employment benefits to any employee who retired above the minimum age, and therefore there was no upper limit to the retirement age.

The OWBPA (older workers benefits protection act) had already put forward rules for the financial inducements for retirement. During the same time, all of the rules and regulations were put in black and white and hence everything was codified. The kinds of retirements and the kinds of retirement benefits etc were defined to establish the grounds on which the actions could be taken (Albert and Schulberg. 1989).

Due to all the above developments in the age discrimination act and due to the keen interest of the government in this issue, the EEOC was able to win the biggest settlement in the history of the world. Almost $250 million were recovered for almost 1,700 public safety officers in 2003. This victory of the EEOC not only points to the growing problem of age discrimination but also points to the developments made in this area (AARP, 2003).

Organization Involved In the Act

Since the proposal of the age discrimination act in 1967, various organizations have been involved in the legislation of this act. The equal employment opportunity commission, the age discrimination commission and the older workers benefit protection commission were all involved in the legislation of this act. Various other NGOs have also been involved in this enactment.

Conclusion (the need for the age discrimination act today)

As the workforces in many developed nations continue to mature, there was a need of putting forward some kind of rule which stops the employers from discriminating the employees on the basis of their age. It was a norm to select workers on the basis of age and little consideration was given to experience or knowledge. It is evident that a more mature person is usually more experienced. However, a younger workforce was also more beneficial for many reasons. The most important reason was the fact that younger workers still had a lot of time to retire and hence the company can reap the benefits before actually paying the pension and other benefits to the employee. This was the main reason the organizations refrained from hiring older employees and went for a younger more vibrant workforce.

Today as much of the workforce in the countries like the United States have reached the age above forty, where these citizens are taken to be as the older citizens of the society, the government has to make sure that these employees are not forced into retirement or are not forced to sit at home just due to the mere fact that they are old. There is more need for the age discrimination act today than it was a decade ago.

It has been noticed that age discrimination cases receive more sympathy than other discrimination cases. The reason can be the fact that the judges usually taking care of these cases are also in the protected age group and hence have more sympathy towards the victim. The result of such cases is usually back pay, front pay, emotional distress pay, etc. Due to such punishments, employers have become more careful while structuring their workplace.

Moreover, it has also been noted that the employer cannot discriminate against the employee in any area and not just in hiring. This means that providing health care benefits, pension funds, etc to all the employees equally is mandatory for the employers.

There is very little research done in this area, even though the labor force of the United States is aging like many other developed nations. There is a need for more research and study in this area. The need for the Age Discrimination Act has never been more. Even though this act covers comprehensively every important aspect of old age discrimination from health care benefits to employment and retirement, however, the general public is still unaware of many crucial parts of the act. The main reason for this is the absenteeism of new studies in this area. The government and other related organizations should make sure that not only the act is comprehendible to everyone but with the help of various researches and studies a critical analysis of the act is also done.

References

Albert, R.J., adn N.S. Schelberg. (1989) Benefit plans redefined under ADEA, Pension World. 45-48.

AARP (2003) Fighting Ageism, Through the Ages; A brief history of the struggle to stamp out age bias. Web.

Find US Law (2008). Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 – ADEA – 29 U.S. Code Chapter 14. Web.

Lockard, D (1968). Towards Equal Opportunity: A study of state and local Anti discrimination Laws. New York, Macmillan.

Miller, D (1966). Age discrimination in employment: The problem of the Older Worker, New York University. 383-424.

Neumark, David (n.d). Age discrimination legislation in the United States. Contemporary Economic Policy (ISSN 1074-3529) Vol. 21, No. 3, 297-317. Western Economic Association International.

Stone, J.E. (1980). Age discrimination in Employment Act: A review of the recent changes. Monthly Labor Review, 103(3), s32-36.

The US equal employment opportunity commission (2008). The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Web.

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