Age Discrimination

In order to prove age discrimination in your workplace, your legal representatives must prove that you are 40 years or older, adversely affected by the employment action in question, and that your employer took said action because of your age. An employer is liable for the discriminatory acts of their employees if:

1. The employee exercised managerial or supervisory responsibility; or
2. The employer knew about the discriminatory act and failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective actions to remedy and prevent such conduct once it had been discovered. An employer is deemed to have known of an employee’s discriminatory conduct where that conduct was known by another employee who exercised managerial or supervisory responsibility, or
3. The employer should have known of the discriminatory conduct and failed to exercise reasonable care in preventing the conduct.

Examples of actionable age discrimination may include (but are not limited to):

• Early Retirement Deals – These are also known as golden handshakes. When an employer bases these deals on the age of a worker over 40, with no other legitimate business reason, a violation of federal and state age discrimination law has occurred.
• Illegal Employee Replacement – Employers commonly refresh their labor force by replacing workers on a routine basis. However, when an employee over the age of 40 can prove a replacement occurred specifically in order to hire or promote a younger employee, he or she could have a case under both state and federal law.
• Illegal Wage Determinations – Violations of age discrimination laws can occur with any aspect of employment. Particularly, with wages and salaries, an employer must not make unfair wage determinations based on the over 40 status of a worker. For instance, an employer may be liable for age discrimination when he/she uses age to determine that an older worker with higher pay due to seniority should be replaced with a younger worker with less seniority.
• Inequality in Job Benefits – In addition to the ADEA, employees have additional federal protection from the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act. This act requires employers to treat older and younger employees equally in terms of the scope and amount of benefits received. Though employers may be tempted to save money by spending less on benefits for older workers or offer less coverage than younger workers, both these actions are prohibited by federal law.